A GROUP of Lake District mothers raised money for their children's school by running a marathon.

Niki Moss was joined by fellow mums Jenny Free and Gayle Lowe, and local teacher Hilary Hennah, to raise £800 for Goodly Dale Community Primary School at Brathay Marathon.

"It was one of the hardest things I have ever done," Mrs Moss said, after finishing her epic challenge in five hours and 44 minutes. "My fellow ladies were amazing. Jenny had been up all night with a flu but she persevered, and Gayle was a good forty minutes ahead of us.

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"The community response towards our fundraising has been amazing. As a teacher and mother it makes me really proud to be a role model and to show that you are able to accomplish things, even difficult things, by working hard."

Mrs Moss, a swimming instructor who raised £1,400 for the fencing, marking and equipment of the school's astroturf pitch last year by swimming the length of Windermere, said: "My family is moving over to Portugal for the next three years. I have always said we are never leaving the Lake District, unless it's for something really special.

"Still, I want to make sure we leave something behind, finish what we have started, because Goodly Dale is such a great school."

The women are aiming to raise £800 to help fund the work to build an 'all-weather pitch' for the Windermere primary, and £200 for charity Level Water.

"We were asked why weren't we doing a flat marathon event, such as London. We thought that because this is a Windermere school, the run should be Windermere-based, even though it's harder," Mrs Moss said. "These ladies are not athletes, they simply have a passion to support the wonderful staff, children and other parents at Goodly Dale by going that extra mile."

Fundraising continues on the dedicated website for further two weeks.

"Every donation received from people is really appreciated, because we are all aware that anybody can do a marathon," she said. "We are still missing £600 from our target and if we were able to raise that, it would be wonderful."

Visit the fundraising page at: www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/goodlydalemumsrun