PUPILS at Archbishop Cranmer Primary School, Taunton, will be glued to their television screens in April, when their teacher, Emily Burgin, is competing in the Flora London Marathon.

Emily decided to go for the race after she mentioned to her stepfather that she was toying with the idea of running a marathon.

"He fell about laughing when I told him, which made me determined to do it," she said.

"I'm not very sporty and I've never done anything like this before, but that was enough to spur me on.

"I've been training since October and I'm up to 10 miles at a time now and I hope to run a six-mile race and a half marathon after that.

"My training is going well, although I'm not too good running on my own, I need friends to egg me on."

Emily is raising money for the national Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre project and her pupils are backing her efforts.

"They're really excited about it - they think it's brilliant and we're doing a school fun run before the big day," she said.

Anyone wishing to sponsor Emily should contact Archbishop Cranmer Primary School.