A couple are set to embark on a 26-mile challenge to support a charity close to her heart.
Liz Stobbart, of Greenbank Road in Ambleside, will tackle the marathon to raise money for St John’s Hospice in Lancaster.
She will set off on Saturday and will walk all the way around Windermere.
Gardener Liz and her partner Rob Powley have been training by walking the dog a little further than usual “and getting a few miles from home”.
Liz, a member of the Ambleside Sports organising committee, has never completed such a distance before. “Every year when the (Brathay Windermere) marathon is on, I say I would love to do it, and never get on with it,” she said.
“Then I was talking to someone a few weeks ago who had done it on his birthday, so it set me thinking again and I said, right, I will do it.”
Liz chose to do the challenge this weekend while the roads are still quiet, before visitors are allowed back to the Lake District, as the Newby Bridge section of the route can be dangerously busy with traffic.
She and Rob will set off from their house heading to Hawkshead, then down to Newby Bridge, and back up via Bowness and Troutbeck Bridge to Ambleside. They reckon the 26 miles will take them about nine or ten hours.
Liz chose the St John’s Hospice in Lancaster as their charity of choice.
“It’s local, and living in such small villages I think we all know someone they have helped, and they need all the support they can get,” she said.
“They get 30 per cent from the NHS and they have to find the other 70 per cent themselves from fundraising. It’s tough.”
She added: “Members of the Ambleside Sports team have been very supportive. We’re all looking forward to being back in action this summer. I love the whole event, helping to set up and take down the equipment.”
Donate at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/liz-stobbart
