It is estimated that £12,000 has been raised as around 150 students took part in the annual RAG challenge Lost.

The event, similar to the Escape and Evade event but the reverse that happened earlier in the year, took place on May 13-15.

The annual competition saw various teams of students taken to three separate secret locations and challenged to blag their way around the country in an attempt to make it back first to Loughborough.

Whilst teams were able to use any form of transport they chose to make it back, they were not allowed to use any money in the process.

Groups of up to three people were allowed to take part in the quest to become champion, but with at least one male required in each.

In the middle of the night, each competitor was blindfolded, disorientated and then taken 100 miles away from Loughborough, without any idea of where they had been taken and left with the challenge of finding their own way back as quick as possible.

Rag Chair Maddie Buckley said: “Lost had more participants than ever this year, with around 150 students going to 3 different secret locations in the UK in the middle of the night on Friday 13th!

“Having been unleashed at around 3am, the first team sped back to arrive at around 8.35am, with the final team return after a marathon day's travelling at 22.10pm that night.

“All teams got back safely and friends and family enjoyed watching their progress on the new online tracking system which we used this year.”

The Chasing Pack, consisting of Ben Snowball, Alex Jackson and Stuart Cameron, ran out the victors as they made it back into Loughborough and onto campus at 8.30 am on May 14.

The group explained how they managed to catch lifts with a policeman, a fireman and a taxi driver amongst the journey however the latter chucked them back onto the side-path after finding out they were not going to pay.

Yet, it was thanks to a lecturer of social policy who took the team south down the M1 motorway to Loughborough which helped the team take the glory.

With two miles left to go the team believed they were heading for a top-10 finish but were greeted only by RAG members when they reached the Students’ Union and were told they were the winners.

In total the journey took them five and a half hours to complete the trip.

Cameron told Label: “The lost experience was a surreal journey of changing emotions of hope and disappointment, but in the end it was an experience at Loughborough I’ll never forget.”

Out of the 52 teams that took part in this year’s event some have raised as much as £250 and it has been estimated by the RAG office that the total figure may have reached £12,000.


Read Winning Team member Ben Snowball’s Blog on his Lost here

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