A couple of weeks ago I met a very special lady. Her name is Charlotte Thompson. Charlotte lives in Hallaton and she runs - a lot!

Over a cup of tea in The Angel Hotel, she told me how she had started running and how she now uses her hobby (and her work - she is now a trainer!) to raise money for charity.

Last year she ran from Hallaton to London and then ran the London Marathon! This year she has an even longer run planned...

Charlotte, along with Martin Johnson's wife, Kay and Devon businesswoman Monique Coulton, has organised a 200-mile group relay run from Devon to the England v France Six Nations game at Twickenham on February 26th.

The target is to raise £100,000 to be split between LOROS and the Urban Zen Foundation, a charity founded by fashion designers Donna Karan to help good causes, such as the Haiti earthquake relief.

Charlotte and her friends have persuaded many famous names to help and they will be greeted when they arrive by representatives of the many businesses who have helped along the way. 

They will run on to the pitch at half-time, raising awareness of LOROS to tens of thousands of rugby fans and millions of people watching across the world. England manager and Leicester Tigers legend Martin Johnson is a patron of LOROS as his mother, Hilary, spent time there before she died in 2002.

Martin's fellow rugby stalwarts Phil Vickery and Lee Mears will complete 3-mile legs of the race along the way.

Also among the team are Times columnist Kate Percy; Hugh Brasher, chief executive of clothing specialists SweatShop; Tom Joule and Simon Dowling of Market Harborough firm Joules clothing; model Jo-Emma Larvin; TV magician Chris Korn; triple Afghanistan amputee Mark Ormrod; and blind marathon runner Dave Heeley.

The race has been named The Rampant Rugby Ball Run, as clothing firm Lions Rampant Ltd is donating the kit.

I really enjoyed chatting to Charlotte - she is so positive and full of energy that it's no surprise she's persuaded so many high profile people to get involved.

To sponsor the team, visit:
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/200milerampantrugbyrun

Charlotte has also organised a fashion show in support of the fund-raising at the Leicester Tigers ground on Friday February 11th at 7pm. See our events section for more info.