A DEDICATED runner is lacing up her trainers for her tenth London Marathon as she hopes to raise even more money for charity Children with Cancer.

Armed with wine gums and a determination to succeed, Eileen Naughton is hoping she will tackle the 26.2 mile route in three and a half hours.

The 34-year-old who lives in Wessex Road, Didcot, has already raised more than £17,000 for the charity over her past nine marathons.

She said: "It is so amazing, I never thought I would be able to raise that in all the time I have been doing the marathon.

"What is really nice is that the charity always sends me updates and lets me know what the money I have raised has gone on.

"So far the money has funded the MRI scans for four patients in advanced scanning techniques of high risk tumours, a years supply of lab consumables for the UK including blood test equipment and it has supported the cost of engineering donor immune cells to offer therapy to children who would otherwise be ineligible."

Miss Naughton, who works on the trauma ward at the John Radcliffe Hospital, said she was inspired to run in 2007 after receiving treatments for a blood condition.

She said: "I always had trouble with my blood and I was in the JR having a blood transfusion.

"As it was before the Churchill hospital was built, there were people there having cancer treatments.

"I kept getting better and I thought how awful it must be, especially for children, who were going through those treatments.

"I started fundraising and I've just kept doing it for them ever since."

But she hopes the event on Sunday, April 23 will see her smash her first marathon time of five hours and 28 minutes.

She added: "It was such a bad time.

"I remember going past the finish line, thinking I did really well.

"Then my parents came up to me, really worried, they thought I had hurt myself because of how long I took.

"I really hope I can do it in three and a half hours."

A marathon pro like Miss Naughton has some tricks up her sleeve to help keep her pace during the event.

She added: "I'll have loads of wine gums on me, they're the secret

"Some people have buy really expensive glucose packs to give them some energy but they never work for me."

For more information or to donate visit: justgiving.com/tenmarathons