A GROUP of four school children have embarked on a mini-marcothon throughout December, with all funds raised going towards Play Alloa.

The four kids, named Rory, Holly, Rhodri and Archie, are all in P4 at Strathdevon Primary in Dollar and have taken on the running challenge this month.

Throughout December, the group has been taking it in turns to run 1.5 miles or 20 minutes each day, making this a child friendly version of the annual marcothon.

Rebecca McFarlane, mother to Holly, is helping the kids keep track of their progress and will be donating the cash to Play Alloa.

She said: “The P4 group has been running together since September and goes out most weekends.

“Holly expressed an interest in keeping children with additional needs after seeing a clip on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing when the professional dancers went along to a group that’s like Play Alloa.

“I used to work at Play Alloa and know all about the brilliant work they do so I suggested the running group did some fundraising for them.”

Play Alloa is a charity which aims to provide a range of play and support options to children and adults with disabilities.

They look to use social networking and play to improve socialisation and increase confidence and self-esteem in those they support.

Rebecca added: “Before we started the challenge, we went along to meet Maria and some of the children there. Maria showed us around and we got to see how the group runs.

“The P4 runners can go to lots of after school clubs and groups like Cubs, swimming, dancing but many of the children at Play Alloa don’t get the opportunity to do that, so they want to do what they can to help.

“Three out of the four parents are also doing the marcothon challenge, so it was a great opportunity to get the kids involved.”

Rebecca and the group had originally set an initial target of £500, but have already smashed it, sitting at £590 at the time of writing.

Between the group, they will cover a 46.5 miles in total, enough to get them from Dollar to Dundee.

The fundraiser is still live and can be viewed at justgiving.com/page/p4runners#timelineUpdates.