THIS daring York student has taken on the challenge of bouncing around the city walls on a space hopper to raise money for Comic Relief.

Simon Alnaimi, 19, has so far hopped around a quarter of the walls and over the coming days he hopes to complete his challenge of jumping along the whole stretch.

The York St John student, who has renamed himself Bouncing Simon, has raised £140 for charity. He said: “Hopping around the walls is much harder than I expected it to be. I got exhausted really quickly. My sister got me the space hopper for my birthday and I thought I should put it to some good use.

“My friends are not very surprised that I planned to do this. I think they are happy I am doing something with the space hopper rather than bouncing around the flat.” Simon, who is studying for a degree in English, said it is not the first wacky challenge he has taken on for Comic Relief.

Two years ago he took part in a chilli eating contest to raise funds.

Meanwhile, hundreds of primary school children from St Wilfrids School and St Barnabas School will greet the Lord Mayor of York, Coun Susan Galloway, as she inspects the city’s walls today.

For the first time since the year 1730, the civic party will join the Lord Mayor on a procession of the city’s walls and Lord Mayor’s Walk and meet the staff in charge of opening and closing the wall’s gates at Monk Bar.