IT’S A key fundraiser for a Hampshire charity, and has taken months to plan.

As a special father’s day adventure challenge, the Rainbow Centre in Fareham has organised a 35 metre high zip wire challenge.

But a last minute technical hitch almost put the brakes on – when crane company Southern Cranes and Access pulled out just days before it was due to take place.

Luckily for the charity organisers, help was just around the corner when King Lifting heavy crane hire in Marchwood stepped in at the eleventh hour.

The company, which employs 20 people at its New Forest branch, will provide the 40 tonne 37 metre crane which will enable nearly one hundred people – wheelchair users included – to brave the 300 metre zip wire across Lakeside North Harbour.

Depot manager Bobby Dean said: “We’re one of the biggest crane companies in the country and we cover the whole of the UK but there are a lot of cut throat people out there. We try not to let people down.

“There’s maybe another job come in, or they might have a ‘must supply’ customer that they can’t let down.”

Fundraiser Jessica Greenwood said: “It would have been disastrous if we hadn’t been able to get a crane. When I got the email saying the company couldn’t do it my heart kind of went. I thought ‘we’ve only got days to go and we’ve got no crane!”

The event taking place on June 19 aims to raise essential funds for the Fareham-based Rainbow Centre, which receives no statutory funding and provides education for people suffering from motor impairment issues such as strokes, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease.

Specially trained educators at the centre teach people including those recovering from brain injuries the skills most of us take for granted through a Hungarian approach called conductive education.

With over seventy people signed up the event already –including 90 year old “supergran” Jean Myles and Rainbow Centre CEO Lara Bull - and nearly £3,000 raised in sponsorship the fundraiser will help conductors continue to provide the sessions their clients rely on for independent living.

With only a few places left you can still take part – and from today you won’t need to raise any sponsorship money. Entry without sponsorship costs £30 and you can sign up at www.rainbowcentre.org/events or call 01329 289500.

Tickets with sponsorship are £20 and there is a target of £80. The deadline for handing in money is one month after the event.

The challenge is open to everyone over the age of six, including wheelchair users, who weigh a minimum of seven stone and a maximum of 17 and a half stone.

It starts at 9:30am on Sunday June 19 and runs until 17:30pm with zip wire slots every hour.