Fundraising for the Bradford Burns Unit Appeal is stepping up a gear with a scooter ride out from Halifax to York planned for next month.

Members of Mutts Nuts scooter group, based in Northowram near Halifax, will start the ride from the village’s Yew Tree Inn on Sunday, October 11. They will stop off in Bradford, Leeds, Tadcaster and Selby to pick up members of other scooter clubs en route to York.

The effort aims to help save the research unit at Bradford University, set up after the 1985 Bradford City fire disaster which killed 56 people and injured more than 190, from possible closure.

Participants will pay £3 to enter and £2 for a special Burns Unit Appeal patch to wear. A raffle will also be held in York.

Keith Shaw, a carpet fitter and member of the Mutts Nuts who lives in Shelf, said: “I’m interested in the Burns Unit because of one of my friends who was involved in the fire.

“He had burns on his head, arms and hands. He worked in double glazing and did a lot of work for the nurses that had helped him because the treatment was excellent.

“I also had a shop on Manningham Lane at the time of the fire and supporters came in to phone their relatives. It was a horrendous event and I was sort of in the middle of it all.”

The Burns Unit Appeal started by Bradford City Football Club and backed by the Telegraph & Argus follows a campaign by the T&A in 1995 which raised £105,000 and kept it running for another three years.

For information about the event call Mr Shaw on (01274) 604974.