IT OFFERS the chance to drive a rally car, fly a Spitfire and even stand atop Mount Everest – and it is based in East Lothian and is helping youngsters at school.

Billy Agnew has been amazed with the success of Viarama – described as the world’s first virtual reality social enterprise – since it was launched in 2015.

The company, based in East Linton, offers the chance for not only schoolchildren but people in hospices and nursing homes to enjoy virtual reality.

Mr Agnew told the Courier that the experiences had brought people to tears.

The 42-year-old said: “It is tremendously rewarding. I feel very, very fortunate and privileged to get to share that with people.

“It is also unexpected; I hoped that the technology would have that impact but you are never really sure until you let people try it for the first time.

“The very first time we had a group come from Leuchie House, they came in and the response was overwhelming. We had four people in and three of them were crying.”

People attending the business, based at the village’s former showground, can enjoy a wide range of activities. They enter into a ‘pod’, which measures about six metres by four metres, and are given a virtual reality headset and headphones.

Mr Agnew, who lives near Gifford, said: “Very, very quickly, they feel as if they are somewhere else.”

Mr Agnew, who was previously involved in psychology and technical project management, felt the experiences also benefited youngsters.

Pupils can use the state-of-the-art equipment to enhance their learning experience, with youngsters from The Compass School, Haddington, among those to have given it a try.

Mr Agnew added: “Traditionally, if you were lucky, you got a video to teach you. It was books or the teacher teaching you about the subject. While the role of the teacher is still very much required, this is an extra tool to help the teacher.

“That is something we are very keen to get across – it is to complement the teacher, it is not to remove them.

“The kids have a visceral reaction to trying it, everybody does.”

Mark Becher, headteacher at The Compass, said P7 pupils studying the Second World War entered “a 3D virtual world with amazing graphics and sound which makes one feel right there in the middle of the 1940s”.

He added: “From experiencing the sights and sounds of the Home Front as troops prepare to embark on trains for battle to surveying the aftermath of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, the children could not have had a more intimate and realistic encounter with life in the war.

“We recognised the many benefits which such a facility can offer; not just in understanding history better but in inspiring imagination and launching a whole range of activities.”