AN AMBITIOUS team of runners are preparing to take on a 100km charity challenge – in one day.

On Saturday, July 1, the group of Worcester women will run and walk the huge distance continuously, aiming to finish in 24 hours.

Simone Montgomery, aged 37, from Warndon Villages, is running to raise money for a Down's syndrome charity, while Michelle Nolan, 37, and Shelly Lewis, 33, are fundraising for the Grace Kelly Ladybird Trust.

And Irene Surridge, from St Peter's, will take on the challenge for Cancer Research UK in memory of two friends who died of cancer in their 30s.

The 43-year-old said: "We are all training hard at the moment, in preparation for 1 July, and I think we must be mad.

"But it’s for great causes and we are aiming to raise as much as we can for these vital charities which give so much support. We hope Worcestershire people will get behind us and donate where they can."

To make a donation visit justgiving.com/fundraising/Irene-Surridge2, justgiving.com/fundraising/Simone-Montgomery1 and uk.virginmoneygiving.com and search for Ladybird Runners fundraising page.