A Sport Relief Mile will be held in Melksham next month complete with Mr Motivator-style warm-up for those taking part.

Members of Avon Valley Runners have organised the event on the playing fields at Christie Miller Sports Centre in Bowerhill on March 21 from 11am.

Participants will have three options of tackling either one, three or six miles, as part of the national biennial sporting initiative, which raises money for Comic Relief.

Running club secretary Darren Wrintmore, who lives in Shaw, said he had already submitted his entry, as had his wife Andrea, son Jaret, seven, and nine-year-old daughter Kira.

“I think I will go around with my son and mum goes around with our daughter,” he said.

“Jaret really likes running and runs a few miles with me every Saturday. Kira thinks she likes the idea of running, but I don’t know if she and her mum realise they are entered yet. But this is the sort of thing everyone can take part in.”

Mr Wrintmore said that as well as runners the club is also looking for entertainers to keep the crowd going.

He said: “It’s very different to other events we organise as its not as much a run for runners as for everybody.

“We want to take the pain out of it too by having people to entertain and the Kinetika people from Christie Miller will be doing a Mr Motivator-style warm-up.

“When we held the event in Bradford on Avon a few years ago, we had Cookie the Clown and he just went around talking to people and entertaining them.” Mr Wrintmore said the club has hosted a Sport Relief Mile since 2004, when it started nationally, including two in Bradford on Avon, one in Woolley Street and one in Barton Farm Park.

He said anyone can take part and they are targeting local schools and businesses with the hope of signing up as many people as possible.

“The big pull will be when the BBC launch all their advertising and things start taking off on the TV and more people know about it and what is going on,” he said.

For more details see www.avonvalleyrunners.org.uk or visit www.sportrelief.com.

l A Sport Relief Mile is also being held in Trowbridge Park on the same day, hosted by Trowbridge Town Council’s sports apprentices, Active Trowbridge.