ON Saturday 7th March, Chepstow Harriers will turn out en masse at the Newport park run to raise money for Comic Relief. For every member attending, Chepstow Harriers Running Club will donate £5 to Comic Relief.

This date coincides with Chepstow Harriers' "Couch to 5k" course members achieving their first 5k race. The aim is to maximise the amount raised for this very worthwhile charity, which helps people living tough lives across the UK and Africa.

Over the course of nine weeks, Chepstow Harriers' Couch to 5k course has given novice runners the help, guidance and focus to progress from doing little or no exercise, to jogging 5k at their own pace.

Chepstow Harriers' team of trained and dedicated coaches are helping the newcomers to achieve their goal. The culmination and focus of their nine week's training will be taking on the Newport park run, a 3-lap, off-road 5k course in the beautiful grounds of Tredegar House.

Each runner will be contributing to Comic Relief, and even those Harriers volunteering to marshal and help at the park run will have £5 donated by Chepstow Harriers to the charity.

Harriers' member Niki Morgan said: "It really is fantastic the work the coaches do with the Couch to 5k group.

"It has inspired many people to give running a go, people who may have been too scared to join a running club for fear they were not fit enough.

"There has also been encouragement via a Facebook group page, access to a training routine, and audio MP3s to help guide the group. This course has helped many people locally achieve their goals.

"To tie the end of this course in with helping other people in the wider community, by contributing to Comic Relief, seemed like too good an opportunity to miss."