OFFICE worker Sally Argyle has swapped her desk for the high-wire after answering an eleventh-hour appeal for a trapeze artist.

Sally, 23, from Hambleton, near Selby, saw an advert for the vacancy with Circus Kings after their resident trapeze artist went home to Russia.

So brave Sally, who had been working as a temp at a PR company, decided to take the plunge.

Sally said: "I had a laugh with my mum about it at first but she said just to go for it. I think she was as shocked as I was when I got the job."

She added: "It isn't something I will have the chance to do again in my life and I'm really looking forward to it."

Sally appears as part of circus performer John Fossett's act. Her job is to act as balance - suspended 25ft in the air on a trapeze bar while John rides his motorbike along the high-wire overhead.

Sally says friends are looking forward to her debut appearance on home soil this week. The circus opens this Friday in Brayton, on a field behind St Wilfrid's Church, with performances at 5pm and 7.30pm.

There are two performances on Saturday, starting at 3pm and 6pm, and one on Sunday at 3pm.

Sally said: "My friends think I'm crazy but it doesn't really faze me. I was a hotel entertainer in Ibiza last year and I'm used to being in front of lots of people."

Updated: 11:29 Wednesday, October 10, 2001