A group of paranormal investigators are on a mission to make Cumbria believe in the supernatural.

Sarah Simmons, from Denton Holme, Carlisle, has been a ghost hunter for 28 years and took over control of Paranormal Investigations Cumbria (PIC), with a drive to continue her passion for all things supernatural. 

Through PIC Sarah and her team of volunteers investigate, and have been called out to local pubs and houses across Carlisle, Cumbria, South West Scotland, and Northumberland.   

This 'fascination' with the paranormal comes from Sarah's childhood where she would often see spirits and is a product of a family connection to the supernatural.

She said: "I have had a fascination with the paranormal and the spiritual world from a very young age. My grandma is a psychic and I am also a psychic now after developing myself psychically eight years ago.

"We set out to help people who have a spirit in the home and they were scared, that was where we started but now we do a lot of homes, pubs, and things like that and we have gone from strength to strength."

When their services are called upon, PIC conducts a number of services which include property cleanses and utilises specialist equipment such as the GhostTube app and a touch-sensitive light-up cat ball, with one of their most recent investigations taking place at Harraby's Arroyo Arms.

These processes have all helped Sarah and her team collate evidence which they believe proves the existence of paranormal activity. 

One of the most compelling pieces of this evidence came when Sarah conducted a live investigation at a home in Morton Park where she communicated with the spirit of a little girl.

"What we loved about that is, because most of our team are sensitive and can pick up on energy, it felt like a human entered the room, but there is no human there so we have a spirit.

"We knew that there was an energy there and it was just the way that she answered questions and she would not leave the cat ball alone.

"It was also two degrees lower where her energy was and we had the light coming out the TV screen and that to us was just so much in that one video which says to us that there was definitely a little girl there."

Sarah acknowledges the skepticism surrounding her work, however, asserts that seeing is believing and cites how several witnesses to her investigations have attested to their credibility.

She said: "I think with people you have to see or experience something to believe. 

"Every investigation has either the homeowner or pub owner and that is for a number of reasons. We love turning a non-believer into a believer."