A health centre manager is putting her fitness to the test with a half marathon to boost the ‘fantastic’ Admiral Nurse Campaign.

Katie Thomas (pictured, below) is ‘certainly not a born runner’ but her husband Darren, a leisure centre duty manager, has always pushed her to get fit.

She started running in January, helped to raise £200 for Cancer Research UK at the 10km Race for Life, and then realised ‘I can do more’.

“I thought the campaign would be really exciting to get involved in,” said Katie.

“I’m doing a really massive challenge for this amazing cause.”

The Sidford Road resident has non-clinical first-hand experience of patients with dementia as the Sid Valley Practice’s relations manager.

The practice has strong links with the Sid Valley Memory Café through Dr Louise Knight, one of the GPs, and Katie learned more about its £100,000 campaign through the Herald.

She is training by jogging four times-a-week - hitting her stride with the Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling - as well as walks with her four-year-old son, Jake.

Katie will take on Exeter’s 13-mile Great West Run on October 18 and hopes to smash the £200 target she has set herself.

To sponsor her online, visit crowdfunding.justgiving.com/katie-thomas-1, or there are paper forms at Twyford House and the Sid Valley’s two doctors’ surgeries.

The campaign’s total now stands at £36,000 since its launch in May and there are a series of fundraisers coming up throughout September and October.

From 8.30am to 1.30pm today (Friday), volunteers will be taking to the streets of Sidmouth to collect for Dementia UK, which recruits Admiral Nurses.

Interested clubs and organisations can still sign up for this year’s Swimathon on Saturday, October 10.

For more information, contact Steve Gunnell of the Rotary Club of Sidmouth on 01395 519302.

The Inner Wheel Club of Sidmouth has organised a charity bridge event on Wednesday, October 28.