ONE way to liven up the daily commute is to do it on stilts!

Theatre company StiltsPro will be stilt-walking from Southend Pier to Downing Street on Monday May 1 where they will be received by the Prime Minister, Teresa May.

The event is the brainchild of David Ames MP for Southend West and it will promote Southend's request for city status and highlight StiltsPro's charity which supports people in refugee camps around the world.

Piotr Pawarski, who runs StiltsPro, says: "Everyone is welcome to come along and join us! We want to make it a fun event for people and there will be 12 stilt walkers and lots of fun and laughter along the way. Each leg of the journey will be an hour or two hours and so people can come along for just one part of it.

"The message we want to get across is of community and hope. By visiting other South Essex towns we hope to add more words of support and unity to our petition to bring the people of our community closer together. By doing this walk, we also aim to break the unofficial world record for longest distance covered on stilts in 24 hours."

The walk will take around 24 hours and will start at Southend Pier at 9am where the group will walk to Shoeburyness Station, Leigh Station, Rayleigh station, Wickford station, Gloucester park, Billericay station, Brentwood station, Romford Market, Upminster station, Purfleet station, Dagenham Heathway, Barking station, Westfield shopping centre, Stratford and arriving at Downing Street around 10pm.

Piotr says: "It will be a long journey and we will be taking it in turns to stilt walk. If all goes to plan Teresa May will be there to receive us when we arrive at Number Ten. It is a very exciting opportunity."

Amongst stilt walkers taking part are Elliot Windsor, Natasha Lanceley, Katarzyna Pawarska, Amber Satchwell, Aida Lungu, Lauren Russell, Harry Dean and Ria Pelling.

StiltsPro was formed by students from East 15 Acting School, which is part of the University of Essex, and they perform regularly throughout the company. The charity StiltsPro for Refugees aims to bring theatre to refugee camps in order to give joy to the people there.

"We raised £1,500 through Crowdfunding for the charity and in the summer we will go to Greece to visit a refugee camp there. In 2018 we will be taking StiltsPro for Refugees to Sierra Leone."

For more information visit www.stiltspro.com.