The two 20-year-olds were raising cash for cancer charity Kidscan, which set a challenge to see how far students could get away from Manchester without splashing the cash.

Glasgow-born Dan, who is reading politics and modern history at Manchester University, said: "We saw some flyers around the Student Union building and thought it looked like fun, so we went for it."

Dan and London-born Ruthie, a theology student, had two weeks to prepare and had no idea where they were headed.

So they set up a scheme for family and friends to sponsor them per mile and also took to the streets of Manchester to ask for the public to donate - raising £300.

Dan, of Fallowfield, said: "We made a couple of calls to see if we could blag some free flights, but in light of the current economic situation, they were not so forthcoming.

"But we had some kind friends who gave us a lift to central London and we spent the night trawling the streets asking for money for the cause.

"Before that, we had stopped off at Watford Gap service station and their staff gave us a free meal after we told them what we were doing and customers gave us £40 in total."

Thanks to some chutzpah, they raised more money - and headed off on the train to Heathrow Airport.

Dan continued: "While we were on our way to London, I asked one of my friends to find out where we could get get a round trip for £300."

The friend came up with return flights to Turkey and, after spending the night on the floor at Heathrow, Dan and Ruthie flew to Istanbul via Zurich.

Dan, who is also Jewish youth movement FZY's regional representative, recalled: "Istanbul is split by the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, so the first thing we did was take a train and ferry to the Asian side - that is further away from Manchester."

They dipped into their cash - which was permitted - to spend two days in Istanbul.

Dan said: "It was a cheap holiday, we stayed in a hostel and once the deadline for the trip passed, we had a really good time."

The daring duo raised £750 in total.