Friends didn't believe mum after house burnt down

Karen North with children Josie, 26, and Harry, 24, who made contact with The Sidemen alongside dad Richard

A Shropshire mother has told how her friends didn't believe her when she texted to tell them her house had burnt down.

The incident has led Karen North and her family to partner with YouTube stars The Sidemen to create a "risque" card game, based on mischievous text messages.

Their home went up in flames after a tumble dryer exploded in September 2014.

The 54-year-old, her husband and four children were thankfully able to evacuate the Bridgnorth property and nobody was injured.

More than 30 firefighters were sent to tackle the huge blaze at Ms North's home nearly ten years ago.

The inferno left serious damage, gutting its kitchen and parts of an upstairs bedroom and leaving her family without their own home for more than a year.

Ms North had put her daughter's PE kit in the tumble dryer before going to bed.

Awkward messages

It wasn't until the family's dog started barking and she smelt electrical smoke that anyone realised there was a problem.

"We were all very lucky to get out," Ms North said.

Parts of the house were completely gutted in 2014

When the housewife later messaged friends to tell them what had happened, none of them believed her.

In fact, they told her it was a sick joke.

The episode sparked an slightly off-colour idea for a game based on devious text messages.

Hit Send - dubbed a high risk game of text roulette - sees players win points by sending awkward messages picked by friends.

Recipients are chosen by a random contact generator, forcing them to send cheeky and sometimes outrageous messages to people in their phone book.

Almost a decade on, the family has been able to bring it to reality.

Ms North's children Josie, 26, and Harry, 24, made contact with The Sidemen alongside dad Richard, who is the president of a toy company.

The mother-of-four said she did not know who The Sidemen were

"I didn't even know who The Sidemen were to be quite honest," Ms North joked.

"They were excited by the game. [Josie and Harry] came back to me and said 'mum you'll never guess what, they're really interested'."

Ms North expressed pride that her family had been able to get the game off the ground after "working tirelessly".

She described it as "hilarious and risque in places".

"It's really funny," she said. "It's exciting to play because it gets everyone together."

YouTube sensations The Sidemen have backed the game

The Sidemen began life in 2013 when seven YouTubers joined forces.

The group, which was forced to cancel a West Midlands visit to its own restaurant last month due to excessive crowd fears, has a combined audience of more than 84.5 million subscribers.

A video of them playing Hit Send racked up about three million views in two weeks.