TWO NIGHTSAFE staff are walking 30 miles to raise money for the Blackburn charities 30th Birthday.

The charity which helps support homeless young people has been operating since 1990 and as avid walkers, Wayne Bowman and his colleague Diane Page are completing the three towers challenge, walking Darwen, Rivington and Peel Towers.

Wayne Bowman, 38 said: “We both like walking and in the last few years in our own time we have done the Yorkshire Dales three peaks walk for ourselves.

“We wanted to do something a bit different and something on our doorstep. I have heard of this walk known as the three towers walk and when I mapped it out it came to about 30 miles.

“It just seemed to fit in with our 30th Anniversary at Nightsafe this year.”

Wayne is a Supported Housing Co-ordinator for Nightsafe and has been with the charity for eight years.

He has seen many young people come and accomplish their goals and hopes that his fundraising will help the charity look after more young people.

“We do a lot of work around life skills at Nightsafe such as teaching people how to cook from scratch and pay their bills,” Wayne added

“It’s all those soft skills which I guess you take for granted in life when you have had someone to show you those skills at home.

“Our young people haven’t got someone to show them those skills so that’s a big part of our job at Nightsafe.”

Wayne has seen one person he has worked with go from being homeless on the street to now working on an apprenticeship to become a dental nurse.

“It is a very rewarding job to know that you are making a difference to young people and their life to get it back on track.”

Wayne and Diane will be setting off at around 6am to start their walk and expect it to last around 12 hours.

The duo will start with Rivington Tower moving along to the Peel Tower and finally finishing up at Darwen tower before walking back to the start.

Wayne said: “If people did donate towards this 30 miles for 30 years walk, the money they would donate would make a big difference to the lives of young homeless people of Blackburn with Darwen and the surrounding areas.”