PARENTS aiming to raise £10,000 for an outdoor gym at Herne Junior School hit the ground running to start the fundraising drive.

They opened the appeal with a 10K sponsored run from the school in Love Lane, to the Taro Centre group and ran four laps of The Heath, before running back to the school.

Herne head teacher Tony Markham joined the runners, to help kick start the gym appeal.

Magdalena Andrews-Dillamore of Sussex Road is one of the parents behind the project, and her personal target is £2,000.

She said: “The outdoor gym will be for all the children at the school to use, and will give them the chance to take more exercise, and so hopefully reducing the chance of obesity, which is a growing problem.

“The cost of the gym is £10,000, of which £6,000 is for the equipment and £4,000 to install it.

“The run went really well, some of us just run for fun, and others have run more seriousely, one parent even ran with a bad ankle, and was hobbling toward the end of the run, which took one hour 40 minutes.

“It was an amazing atmosphere, and when we went around the Heath there were a group of supporters there cheering us on every time we went past.”

On the day about £600 was raised through sponsorship and donations made at the Plump Duck cafe on The Heath.

Magdalena said: “We now plan to start a running club for any parents that are interested, and money made from that will go toward the outdoor gym, which will go in the school playground.”

To donate to the appeasl visit the web pages Crowdfunding.justgiving.com/Magdalena Andrews-Dillamore, or Crowdfunding.justgiving.com/anthony-markham