GETTING into a police car and speeding off at 80mph would normally result in a night behind bars.

But on Saturday hundreds of women were encouraged to put their foot down at the eighth Marie Curie Ladies' Driving Challenge.

More than 230 women from across Wiltshire helped raised £26,500 at RAF Colerne for Marie Curie Cancer Care.

Fundraising manager Sophie Kinsman said it was the largest amount ever raised at the annual event.

"We reached above our target as we were aiming for £24,000 so that is excellent news for the charity. Each year we try to raise more and more and it was a great success this year," she said.

Each contender paid a £5 entry fee and was asked to raise a minimum of £75 in sponsorship before they could take part.

The day was split into a morning and afternoon session and each woman could try their hand at any vehicle as many times as they wanted.

The base was split into five areas and mini-buses chauffeured people from one area to another.

On site there were many different types of vehicles to drive and operate, most of which the women would probably have never dreamed of driving before.

These included heavy goods vehicles, a crane, a combine harvester, a giant dumper truck, tractors, fire engines, double decker buses, coaches, police cars and a high performance (and extremely fast) Toyota.

Part of the challenge was to complete the driving skills course, run by advanced driving instructors, who gave points to each contender for their driving manoeuvres and advanced driving skills.

"We gave a prize to the person with the highest score and another prize to the woman who raised the most money, but we are still working out the results," said Ms Kinsman.

At the end of the session each competitor was awarded a certificate of achievement.

All the competitors had a great time driving vehicles big and small, fast and slow, under the watchful green-eyes of their husbands or partners.

"Everyone said they had really good fun," said Ms Kinsman.

"We had a lot of people who have done the event before and loads of people came up to me and asked if they could be told about it again next year."

But there were some vehicles that were particularly popular with the contenders.

"The police cars were very popular as they always are but so were the HGVs this year," said Ms Kinsman.

The TR70 Terex 70 ton dumper truck was also a special addition to the challenge and it literally stopped traffic to reach the airbase.

"It was brought all the way down from Netherwell in Scotland and hundreds of police vehicles from each county were called in to escort it," said Ms Kinsman.

"Two lanes of the M4 were closed to bring it here and it took threeand-a-half days in total from Scotland."

The truck stopped off at the driving challenge on its way to Baltimore, USA, and was donated for the day by Tarmac Ltd in Swindon.

"The vehicle is brand spanking new, straight from the factory and our ladies on Saturday were the first to try it," said Ms Kinsman.

"I had a go in it and it was great fun, just a huge big toy."

But the success of the day would not have been made possible without the hard work of more than 40 volunteers from Wiltshire Round Table and the Royal Engineers.

More than 40 drivers also volunteered their time and vehicles to help raise money.

All funds raised at the event will go towards Marie Curie home and hospice nursing car for people suffering with cancer and for research into causes and treatments.