Five Kingston second year Graphic Design students have raised over £750 for London based homeless charity Shelter.

The students took part in 'Vertical Rush' last month, running up the tallest building in the City of London, Tower 42. The building has a total of 920 steps, and is 42 floors high.

Abigail Lee, team captain, said: "We all managed the stairs in under 10 minutes, the quickest team member coming in at 9.20mins and the last 9.52mins. It was a massive achievement for us all and we can honestly say the hardest thing we have ever done."

"Once we were at the top we had the most amazing view of the city, most of which we couldn't enjoy as we felt close to death. We were one of very few student teams and have been enlisted to help promote the event amongst more students next year."

Other members of the team were El Williams, Laura Pratley, Ben Lambert and Hayden Wilcox. The £750 was raised through online sponsorship and an Olympics themed event in the Knights Park bar, but the team were also helped by the university which is contributing the £175 event entrance fee.

Lawrence Zeegen, Head of the School of Communication Design at Kingston University, said: "With projects such as Vertical Rush we are only too pleased to support our students in their participation - the starting point was a year one staff-set project that raised the issue of homelessness that this group of students literally ran with."

This was the second year Shelter have organised Vertical Rush. Over 300 people split into 121 teams took part in the competition, which took place on Thursday February 25.

Gill Kemp, Shelter’s Community and Events Manager, said: “Participants came from all over London, students and professionals alike, to support Shelter’s cause and raise money for homeless and badly housed families. We hope to see everyone again next year for Vertical Rush 2011 and we hope more students from across the country will team up to take part in this fun and challenging event.”