Mercury Theatre's vice chair is running 7.5 mile road race

Robert West has also been chairman of the captial sub-committee at the theatre in Colchester for about a year.

The committee was set up to oversee the Mercury Rising project - an £8.9 million extension and refurbishment of the theatre.

There is still another £1.7 million left to raise, and Robert will be taking part in the Colchester Harriers 7.5 mile road race on March 17 to help boost the coffers.

He said: “Mercury Rising is an exciting project which will modernise and transform our much-loved theatre, safeguarding its future for the whole community.

“I have done 10k runs but I have never done anything of this distance before.

“I’m just trying to encourage everyone to do their bit for the campaign.

“I’m pushing myself a little bit further, we are close in terms of fundraising, but we just need to do a little bit more.”

He has managed 6.5miles so far and he said the Colchester Harriers Athletics Club has given him lots of encouragement.

He said: “I’m excited. It’s just pushing myself that little bit further so it will be a bit of a challenge.

“We shall just see how it goes. I’m trying to raise around £300, just a small amount.

“It’s the kind of thing we are trying to focus on with the project.

“The thing with big captial projects is you can get hung up with the big money but we want to do this for the people of Colchester and we don’t want people to think they need to raise thousands.

“Light bulbs have to be paid for and chairs need to be bought, every little helps.”

Phelans is the main contractor on site for the project.

The main theatre will be open until the end of May and a pop-up theatre will be installed on Abbey Field for the autumn and winter season.

In the meantime, work will start on the new production block at the back of the theatre which will house a new rehearsal studio, dance studio, offices, wardrobe and production facilities.

To support Robert’s fundraising visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/robert-west58.