Charity Escape Room games launched by Cheltenham company

Two play-at-home escape room games, created by Escape Rooms Cheltenham, have gone on sale today in aid of Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity.

The escape room games were designed by schoolgirls, Grace Brocklehurst (11) and Byrony Primrose (12), who won a national Design an Escape Room competition organised by Cheltenham based social enterprise, Create on the Square, during the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Grace’s game, which won in the under 12 category, is called Grace’s Great Voyage and players have to help Grace build her ark so she can go on an epic adventure with all her favourite animals. The game combines a range of puzzles including maths, spelling, constructing and deciphering and is suitable for 8+.

All proceeds of Grace’s Great Voyage go to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where she was treated as a toddler.

Grace Brocklehurst, U12 competition winner said - “I was delighted and proud my design ideas won the competition. I am so pleased I can now give something back to Alder Hey. Alder Hey helped to find out what exactly was making me ill and helped make me better. It is a very special hospital helping so many different children every day”.

Bryony won the 12-14 category with her Secret Spy Service escape room. Players must assist Commander Bryony on a top secret mission to capture the Cryptic Gang. The game combines a range of puzzles including maths, spelling, constructing and deciphering and is recommended for ages 12+.

All proceeds of Secret Spy Service go to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital.

Bryony Primrose, 12-14yrs competition winner. said - "My dad saw the competition online and thought I would like to enter as I have completed a couple of escape rooms. I’m very happy that I did win because it was a lot of fun to design and all the money goes to a really good cause. My chosen charity is one close to the hearts of my family. We lost my brother 7 years ago and the Edinburgh Children’s Hospital were very helpful to us while trying to deal with the loss. We have done a couple of things in the past to raise money for them so it was quite an easy decision.”

The idea for the competition came about as a response to the first Covid-19 lockdown.

Pete George, Director, Create on the Square CIC said - “When the lockdown was called in April, all Create on the Square projects were immediately shut down. We decided to run a competition to give children something creative to do during lockdown, and also to raise money for charities in this difficult year. We were really pleased with the response from across the UK.”

Create on the Square is based on Coronation Square, and aims to encourage creative enterprise in the community. They have sparked a variety of initiatives in the Cheltenham West area, including a small escape room project in 2018 that grew into Escape Rooms Cheltenham.

Escape Rooms Cheltenham is now a separate company, but were very happy to be involved in the competition and turn the designs into play at home escape room games.

Megan Prendergast, Director, Escape Rooms Cheltenham said - “It has been great to bring Grace and Byrony’s ideas to life, and be able to include elements that are personal to them in the game. We’re really excited to launch these games and hope the games will raise plenty of money for both Alder Hey and Edinburgh Children’s Hospitals for a long time to come.”

The escape room game is on sale at Escape Rooms Cheltenham with 100% of the sale price of £10 going to the charities.