The Team Variety members who are running in the London Marathon Picture: ROB CURRIE (00917960)

A TEAM of 14 Islanders will be running the London Marathon to raise money for the Variety Club of Jersey.

James Lambert, Anna Tredant, Pauline Alderman, Nicola Appleton, Angela Milton, Bernie Manning, Lisa Freer, Adrian Gordon, Nick Dorey Paul Alker, Sue Young, Richard Mayo, Claire Malzard and David Harper are all taking on the 26-mile challenge

Each Variety Team runner has pledged to raise £1,000 to build a playground at Janvrin School. Half of them have never run a marathon before while others are regulars on the running circuit.

It will be the tenth marathon for one of the runners, Pauline Alderman, who said: ‘The team has a great cross-section of people. There are teachers, people from the banking industry, all walks of life really. We have been having a lot of fun. The team spirit is good and everyone is looking forward to it.’

Pauline said that the whole team had been training hard in the run-up to the event on 25 April.

‘Everyone has their own training programme but we try to meet up once a month for a run together,’ she said. ‘It is very humbling to know that getting up at 6 am for a run is ultimately benefiting such a worthy cause.’

Even with all her marathon experience, Pauline is feeling the pressure. ‘It doesn’t matter how many marathons you run, you still get nervous,’ she said.

Every year the Variety Club of Jersey forms a group of Islanders who fundraise for the charity.

Last year’s Team Variety also ran the London Marathon and they used the money to build a playground at Trinity School.

Variety Team chairman Sandra Auckland said: ‘It really is wonderful to have another 14 people dedicated to run the London Marathon for Variety. It really is fantastic.’