A Tipton woman is celebrating running her 10th marathon in New York by raising money for 10 charities

Jo Earlam, 46, completed her first marathon in London in 2005, but never expected to still be running them six years later.

She said: “I still find it hard to believe I’ve run one marathon, let alone reaching my 10th!”

Jo added: “I can’t imagine what possessed me to do another, but I did and kind of got the bug. Running is now a part of my life and my life is all the better for it.”

Since taking up marathon running, she has run for many charities including Hospicecare, the Devon Air Ambulance, and Exeter Leukaemia Fund. These, along with seven others, are the charities she is hoping to raise money for in New York on Sunday, November 6.

Jo recently gave up her job as a BBC journalist to devote more time to fundraising, voluntary and community work, and has been nominated to carry the Olympic torch next year for her charity fundraising efforts.

The 10 marathons Jo has completed include London, seven and a half times around the island of Tresco, on the Isles of Scilly, Edinburgh, Belfast, Palma, where she got a personal best of four hours and 16 minutes, a 32 mile ultra marathon on Dartmoor and her most recent effort, the Paris marathon in April this year.

You can support any one of Jo’s 10 chosen charities for her New York marathon run by logging on to her JustGiving website at www.justgiving.com/teams/poweroften