Crazy stunts were staged trhoughout the country to raise money for Comic Relief yesterday. The Northern Echo reports on how the region contributed to the annual Red Nose Day efforts.

FIREFIGHTERS from Cleveland Fire Brigade joined college students and staff from Tesco supermarket in testing their strength with an engine pull to raise cash for Comic Relief.

Crews from Hartlepool Fire Station challenged the students and staff in the car park of the Hartlepool store.

Station manager Ian Harrington said: "We each had two to three teams and each team pulled the engine approximately 50 metres in the car park. Each pull was timed and the team with the best time won."

The engine pull was just one of several Comic Relief events on Teesside.

Staff at Tristar Homes took part in a fancy dress five-a-side football at their new depot at Primrose Hill and Drop Idol, where three directors volunteered to bungee from the Transporter Bridge - but only one was chosen.

Pupils from Teesside High School for Girls carried out tasks ranging from doing the washing up to mowing the lawn or doing the ironing, with parents and friends sponsoring them.

Youngsters from Rosedene nursery in Hemlington also got dressed up for the occasion.

And Salsa aerobics instructor Michelle Robinson, who had 68 women dancing the mambo and cha-cha-cha to the salsa beat, raised £120 at the Thornaby Pavilion.

Elsewhere, 43-year-old Tony Everett raised more than £500 by spending 24 hours in a cardboard box in Northallerton, North Yorkshire.

He slept in the box with just newspaper to keep him warm and cold water to drink outside his employers, E Wood Ltd, on the town's Standard Way industrial estate.

At Northallerton College, three boys endured a sponsored leg waxing, while others tucked into cakes baked for the day and sold during break times.

Shoppers in Richmond had the chance to learn to juggle in return for a donation.

The former vicar of Swaledale, the Reverend Tim Tunley, who now works in Leeds, was in the Market Place at lunchtime to teach the circus skill.

Children and staff from Tiny Turners Nursery, in Brinkburn Road, Darlington, each donated £1 to take part in a day of fun.

The event culminated with sponsored volunteers sitting in a paddling pool of red gloop, made from coloured cornflour and water.

Staff at St John's RC Comprehensive School, in Bishop Auckland, staged a variety show and pupils at the town's Bishop Barrington School held a sponsored stay-awake, baked cakes and biscuits and wore casual clothes to their classes.

Morris Moore, of Dunelm Homes, Newton Aycliffe, sat in a bath of baked beans to raise cash for the charity, while statues at The Bowes Museum, near Barnard Castle, were adorned with red noses,

Teachers at Cheveley Park Primary School, in Belmont, Durham, re-enacted hits by Girls Aloud and Sugababes after they were sponsored to the tune of £60 by pupils.

The school also sold red noses and raised more than £400 for the charity.

Volunteers from call centres across the North-East gave up their free time to man the charity's donation line.

About 250 people took calls throughout the live four-hour television extravaganza on BBC One.

Some of the npower contact centre volunteers got into the Comic Relief spirit by dressing up in red bad taste outfits for the day.

Paul Robinson, head of contact centres at npower said: "Our employees jumped at the chance to donate their time for Comic Relief and, ultimately, the vulnerable people the charity helps both here in the UK and in Africa."

Employees will also hosted a range of their own fundraising activities throughout the day including a raffle, a bring and buy sale, a Guess the Baby Photo contest. They also battled it out in a Comic Relief themed cake baking competition and a stand-up bingo competition.