Spring is in the air and runners from around the region have been going that extra mile for charity.

Forty-eight-year-old Navit Gohil joined thousands of others as he took part in the Flora London Marathon.

Navit, who ran to raise money for Sense, an organisation which helps people with deaf, blindness and related disabilities, said, "When I began training, more than three months ago, I found it difficult to run a couple of miles. The hardest thing was motivating myself to get out of the house. I couldn't run a single mile at first."

"My family were a bit hesitant, because I've never been one to do much strenuous exercise." Navit raised over £700 for the charity.

At Bangor Stret Community Centre another forty something, Osman Sidik, has got family members on the run!

Since a fitness group was established at the centre Osman has been a regular attendee. He took part in a very tough 10 km course in and finished it in 57 minutes.

He now trains four times a week running up to 30 miles and aims to race at least once a month. His sons Naeem, aged 13 who ran a two mile race and finished fourth. His other sons Naeem and Raheem completed the Burnley 1.5 miles. And in the Bolton 10km event his three sons and their cousins Imran and Altaf all raced.

The full group of runners at the centre completed in the Bolton 10km run. It appears regular training did the trick with runners finishing under the hour mark. Iftikar Ali came out on top with a time of 44 minutes and 46 seconds.