CHILDREN and teachers at a Dorchester school are urging people to support a Weymouth fireman's charity run in the Snowdonia marathon on Sunday, October 27.

Paul Johnson is tackling the gruelling run to raise money for books at a school in Entebbe, Uganda, which is twinned with his children's Manor Park First School in Dorchester.

The event, considered one of the toughest in Europe, attracts around 1,000 runners.

Paul, a member of Egdon Heath Harriers, has run it twice before and is hoping to complete the 26.2 miles inside four hours. He said: "It is a worthwhile cause.

"I am training on a regular basis and over the last three to four months I have upped what I am doing to 90 minutes a day with one day per week running for two and a half hours."

For the past three years Manor Park has been linked with Kiwafu Primary School in Entebbe, Uganda.

Children at the two schools write to each other and four teenagers from Dorchester have spent six months working at the school on gap year projects. Teacher Cathy Nisbet who has twice visited Kiwafu, said the Dorchester children's fundraising efforts had been of huge benefit to the school.

She added: "Two years ago this Ugandan school of more than 1,000 children had very few books. Children at Manor Park have helped raise money towards a new library extension and when I visited this year I took money to pay for shelving and fitting out the extension.

"Children at Kiwafu are keen to learn but the school now badly needs help providing books and resources to equip the library and we hope as many people as possible will sponsor Paul."

Kiwafu has some 1,200 children in classes of 100 or more.

Many have lost one or both parents through Aids or malaria and come from poor families living on a few pence a day.

Anybody able to sponsor Paul in the marathon can contact the school office on (01305) 268741.