FIVE friends from Burnham will be taking on a 20-mile challenge to raise cash for Children with Cancer UK next month.

Joanna Coggins, Kate Riddowt, Kathy Mullin, Jenny Williams and Christina Emery, all originally from Burnham, will be taking on the ‘Rat Race – Dirty Weekend’ obstacle course on May 9.

The girls’ efforts were boosted by £300 last weekend with Joanna, Kate, Kathy and Jenny taking part in a 100-mile cycle challenge at ASDA, Highbridge. Joanna, who works as a section leader at the store, told the Weekly News how the six-hour cycle marathon was good preparation for the 20-mile challenge.

She said: “We thought this would be a good idea to boost the funds and also as a bit of a warm up. “Although if how I felt on Saturday night is anything to go by I’ll need to increase my training a bit. “We were delighted to have raised so much though.”

The challenge saw the four girls, along with James Tandy, Asda’s community colleague, take it in turns on the exercise bike to try to reach a distance of 100 miles in six hours.

Over the course of the day they managed to collect £300.25 to go towards their fundraising for the cancer charity.

The girls are now gearing up for the main event which will see them tackle 200 obstacles in the world’s largest assault course and 30-year-old Joanna says she is starting to feel a little bit apprehensive. “We’ve never done anything like this before,” she said.

“We’ve all done the Race for Life but this will be a lot tougher. “Now it’s starting to get a bit closer the panic’s starting to set in.”

The Asda worker was bought the entry to the race as a Wedding present from her friends who weren’t going to let her miss the gruelling event.

She said: “I’d said I couldn’t really afford it because of the weeding but they all came together and bought my place as a wedding gift.

“And for my husband they’ve offered to cook him a meal so I can’t help but think I came out of this a bit worse.”