AGAINST a din of audible applause, more than 50 people cast aside their shoes and faced the heat of a charity fire walk on bare skin.

As many as 12 charitable causes are hundreds of pounds better off thanks to those who braved Newton Abbot Rotary’s fire walk.

All told, more than £8,000 was raised for the charities, among them the Meadowside Charity, No Limits Cafe and Hub and the Friends of Glendinning to name but three, represented at the event, which took place at Buckland Athletic Football Club’s stomping ground, Homers Heath.

A sizeable crowd of spectators, some 100 strong, added to the already stellar atmosphere, made such by a performance by Tano Taiko Drummers.

One walker, having sounded it out with her feet, literally took the challenge head on, tripping and landing face first onto the fire.

Fortunately, however, she rose no worse for wear, completing the fire walk to rapturous applause.

Revellers enjoyed themselves at the on-site bar, and satiated their hunger with food cooked – appropriately – on a barbeque.