FORGET fire, ice or a bed of nails — brave "soles" are now being asked to walk across ten thousand toy bricks in the name of charity.

The challenge has been laid out by organisers from The Christie, who came down to Bolton Market to promote the event and asked our reporter Liam Thorp to “step-up.”

It is a simple concept - instead of walking across hot coals, brave challengers have to walk across notoriously painful toy building bricks that look very much like Lego but are definitely not Lego (for legal reasons).

The main event will take place at the Trafford Centre on the Orient stage on Friday, where courageous volunteers will be asked to pay £5 to tackle the 8ft of "toy brick terror" from anytime between 10am and 10pm.

As well as The Bolton News being put through their paces, James Pilkington, the station manager of Bolton FM, based at the Market, was asked to step forward.

After the gruelling challenge, he said: “That was certainly an experience. It was not quite as bad as I thought it would be — but when you think you have finished you step on the ground and there are still bits stuck on your feet, that hurt.

“But it is all good fun and for a really good cause and I hope lots of people will join The Christie on Friday.”

The event was thought up by Christie campaign worker, Natalie Pike, who has been touring the region to promote it.

She said: “We have seen a lot of fire walks in the past, so we wanted to do something with a twist, so instead of fire, we thought why not walk on 10,000 toy bricks?

“We want as many people as possible to come down and have a go on Friday — we have managed to arrange the whole event for free, with the bricks being donated and the Trafford Centre kindly hosting us for nothing, so everything we raise will be going straight to the Christie charitable fund.”

For more information contact appeals@christies.org or call 0161 4463988.

The event forms part of the Christie’s Big Do campaign, in which the charity asks everyone in Greater Manchester to do one big thing to raise money.

The Christie would like anyone taking part on the day to let them know how they get on by tweeting @TheChristie.

LIAM WALKS THE PAINFUL BRICK ROAD 

REGULAR readers of The Bolton News will be aware that I am very much the go-to guy for novelty challenges, but as I timidly set foot on to the piercing bed of toy bricks at Bolton Market yesterday, I thought I had met my match.

My nerves were shredded even further when I noted that a crowd of eagle-eyed shoppers had gathered to watch my every wincing move.

I was told by onlookers that the best way to do it was to move as quickly across the 8ft path of bricks as possible, but as I found to my cost, this did not fit with the plans of our photographer who needed plenty of time to get his shots.

The things I do for this job.

Of course I am slightly embellishing the painful nature of the challenge and within half an hour the imprints of tiny bricks had started to fade from my feet, thankfully.

I would encourage everyone to step up and follow my mildly courageous example at the main event at the Trafford Centre on Friday and help the Christie to raise as much as possible.