A YORK runner is hoping to celebrate the 800th anniversary of York by raising £800 for local charities.

James Richardson will run three separate events, totalling 26 miles, to raise funds for York Against Cancer and York Lollipop, a charity dealing with hearing loss in young people.

James, 38, who works for Wallis Business Services at Clifton Moor, will run the Thirsk ten-mile race on March 25, the three-mile York Park Run on Knavesmire on April 7, and will then run 13 miles from one of Wallis’s customers in Easingwold to its head office on Clifton Moor. He said: “York is 800 years old this year, so £800 seemed an apt target.”