Teaching assistant Fran Smith is to run the London Marathon to help allergy victims.

Marathon effort - Fran Smith and Michael Beaumont prepare for the London Marathon, helped by an alien toy to represent their friend Jo Newstead, who was taking part in the Paris Marathon. Picture: TERENCE BUNCH 18VLML3

Fran Smith, 52, of Cheldon Barton, Thorpe Bay, who works at St Mary's Church of England School, Southend, will donate her sponsorship money from the April 14 event to the charity Action Against Allergy.

Keeping Fran company for the marathon will be friends Michael Beaumont, 52, of Shepard Close, Eastwood, and Jo Newstead, formerly of Thorpe Bay who now lives in Paris.

Fran said: "The number of people suffering from allergic illness has grown alarmingly in recent years. I find increasingly we have children at St Mary's who are really debilitated by allergies."

Fran has a particular interest in supporting people with allergies because members of her family suffer from asthma, and her older sister, Jennifer, has fought allergic illness most of her life.

Action against Allergy, a registered charity, provides information to those made ill through different forms of allergy and to their carers. It publishes regular newsletters and reports on new research.

Published Tuesday, April 9, 2002