Members of staff at a Maidstone charity have spent 23 hours running, rowing and cycling to Paris... all from the comfort of their office.

Luke Francis, Emma Reeves, Tommy Dellar, Amy Johnson and Richelle Sparks from The Parenta Trust completed the 240-mile triathlon in aid of the charity which helps disadvantaged children in Eastern Africa.

Starting at 9am the team ran the equivalent distance of 40 miles to Dover before rowing across the channel and cycling more than 170 miles to Paris.

The distance was covered from their office, in Rocky Hill, where a gym complete with treadmill, rowing machine and fitness bike was set up.

Before the challenge team leader Luke Francis said: “One of us will be sweating on the machine, while the others cover the phones. We’ll keep swapping until we’ve done all 240 miles.”

The team worked through the night and completed the challenge in 23 hours 12 minutes and their efforts, which were cheered on by the rest of the office and were met with a special menu of English and French food, raised £531.75.

Allan Presland, managing director of the charity, said: “I am absolutely delighted with the effort put into fundraising by the customer service team. Completing a triathlon of this scale is difficult even for seasoned athletes, but the team managed to do this whilst balancing their everyday workload, too!”

“I am very proud of the team. The money raised will be put towards building a new pre-school in Uganda next year.”