Leeds man's Guinness World Record trip to nine cities in 24 hours for Sands stillbirth charity

It didn’t take long for Chris Fletcher’s and Adam Leyton’s cross-Europe charity dash to derail after leaving London, when a suspicious package on the platform in Paris halted their departure for Brussels and Amsterdam.

Fast forward to Holland’s gigantic Schiphol airport, where they ran “like a pair of mad men” to make their flight to Berlin in a “critical moment”.

Then it was on to Prague, Bratislava and Vienna, before ending the their Planes, Trains and Automobiles-style trip in Budapest in the early hours of yesterday.

Business partners Mr Fletcher, 38, of Burley and Mr Leyton, 41, who now lives in Edinburgh, decided to take up the challenge for Sands, a stillbirth and neonatal death charity.

Eight years ago, Mr Leyton’s sister, Gemma, lost her baby daughter Tilly Rose just five days before she was due to be born.

The pair had raised £695 for the charity by last night, and the tally reaches £2,000 for the cause when combined with another of Mr Leyton’s challenges two years ago – when he visited twelve countries in a day.

Mr Leyton said: “It’s good fun, and we got an extra £5 for it because we won a bet.”

He added: “It’s not just the money, it’s the awareness. It’s quite a small charity.”

The duo only spent about four minutes in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and 10 in Brussels – and it was straight back home to Leeds and Edinburgh yesterday.

The pair, who co-own marketing agency CEE Digital, are now waiting for their achievement to be confirmed by Guinness World Records.

“It was tough – really tough,” Mr Fletcher said.

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