The next wave of runners at Taunton Prep School have started a new running club inspired by the recent London Marathon.

There have been a number of pupils turning up each week to challenge themselves to run faster and imrpove their techniques. They began their first two sessions practising breathing techniques, changing speeds, endurance running and most importantly, having fun with their friends. They have been supported by some of the Year 8 leaders who have helped them to push themselves to realise what they can achieve.

Mr Swires, who leads the club, is currently training for the Leeds Marathon which takes place on 14th May and is raising money for the Children’s Mental Healthy charity YoungMinds. Having never run a marathon before, Mr Swires has been training for almost a year, completing several half-marathons but this will be the biggest challenge yet on the hilly Yorkshire course.

He said, “YoungMinds do a lot of fantastic work up and down the country supporting young people with a variety of needs and with a huge increase in children trying to access mental health services, I wanted to help in any way I could to make that support more accessible and readily available”.

If you would like to support or sponsor Mr Swires he has set up a JustGiving page which can be found at: https://justgiving.com/fundraising/danswires