TWO supergrans from Worcester will prove age is no barrier when they join thousands of people on the capital’s streets in the name of good causes.

Monica Martin and Maggie Atherton, both members of the Worcester and Malvern Club of Soroptimist International, are limbering up for the London Marathon on Sunday, April 17.

The super-fit septuagenarians are raising funds for Age UK – one of the charities supported by Soroptimist Inter-national (SI) – the world’s leading international women’s organisation.

Mrs Martin, of Meadow Road, Claines, is the incoming president of the Worcester and Malvern branch of SI and has already completed London and New York marathons.

The grandmother-of-five has always been a keen sportswoman, regularly playing squash and cycling, but only took up running in her 40s when she was advised to do so by her doctor to help her bad back.

The 70-year-old, who is also a member of the Black Pear Joggers, said she hopes to raise £1,600 for the charity and thanked customers and staff at the Mug House pub, who are holding a collection to aid her fund-raising, for their support.

“I’m a keen runner so I’m looking forward to the London Marathon,” said Mrs Martin, who was administrator at the St Swithun’s Institute and a parish secretary before retiring.

“I ran it three years ago for St Richard’s Hospice and I’ve not stopped training.”

Mrs Atherton, a grandmother-of-five, only took up running when she turned 60, but has since twice completed the New York Marathon, run a ladies’ marathon in San Francisco, as well as taken on the Goofy Challenge around Disney World in Orlando and marathons in France.

The mother-of-two, who lives off Ombersley Road in Northwick, joined Soroptimist International in 1994 after moving to Worcestershire from Manchester when she became nurse director at a Birmingham hospital.

The 71-year-old, who started running on her 60th birthday, is hoping to raise £2,000.

“It’s only five hours at the end of the day.

“You spend the first two-and-a-half hours enjoying yourself, the next hour it’s awful and then the last hour-and-a-half wishing it was over, and then it is.”

Anyone who would like to support the duo can visit justgiving.com/margaret-atherton or take donations to the Mug House pub in Claines.