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The Lord Mayor of Canterbury was the first person, and the last, to take part in a charity zip wire challenge at the city's Dane John Gardens.

The challenge attracted 45 participants, but many opted to have more than one go with the district's first citizen descending down the wire a record four times.

The credit crunch affected the amount of sponsorship raised with £2,439 pledged by participants, slightly down on what organisers hoped.

But the day was a great success with technical issues to enable the zip wire challenge to be staged tackled by specialist adventure firm Avalon Adventures and Canterbury-based Luckhurst Scaffolding.

Luckhurst were only brought in to support the event 48 hours before it was held and were described by event promoter Simon Dolby from KM Walking Bus as the seventh cavalry.

Mr Dolby said: "All the sponsors supporting the event have been fantastic but for Luckhurst Scaffolding to come on board providing their expertise and staff free at such late notice was absolutely fantastic."

City council computer modeling of the predicted angle of decent had highlighted a potential problem with the original launch point on the Dane John mound so Luckhurst Scaffolding was brought in to create a raised platform for participants to launch from.

See the zip wire video opposite

Lord Mayor Carolyn Parry said: "The day was fantastic, the zip wire was exhilarating and the public's support excellent."

She thanked her team of volunteers for helping to stage the event and sponsors True Grip off road, Robert Mitchell hairdressing, Parry Law and the city council.

The funds raised will be divided between the Lord Mayor's civic charity the Footlights Trust and KM Walking Bus. Footlights will receive £1,707 and Walking Bus £731. The top fund-raiser was Gillian Jones from Chartham who raised £260.

Char Todd and Catherine Herbert, both from Chislet, wore the best fancy dress outfits. The pair came in one-piece jump suits to look like characters from the Kill Bill martial arts film.

The jury is still out on whether kmfm presenter Bob Mower or the Lord Mayor raised the most sponsorship on the day as both have raised more than £100 but have a number of pledges still to come in.

The Lord Mayor had publicly challenged Mr Mower that she could raise more than him in sponsorship.

The next KM charity challenge event will be an abseil from the cliffs above Port Ramsgate on Saturday, December 6. The event will raise funds for the children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent and KM Walking Bus. For a free event pack go to www.kmcharitychallenge.co.uk

•For more pictures from the zip wire challenge, see this week's Kentish Gazette