A 40-strong team of women from the Southern Daily Echo are gearing up for a 5km run to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Staff from several departments at the newspaper will join 10,000 other women in the Race for Life in Southampton on July 18.

Echo staff get ready to race

Deputy news editor Jenny Makin said: “We’ve been called the Daily Echo Daredevils and we’ve got people from editorial, photography, advertising and other departments racing for us.

“Our women’s editor Kate Thompson has been organising it. It’s the first time we’ve entered as a group and Newsquest have paid our entrance fee for us.

“We’re trying to raise loads of money and our news editor has been bombarded with requests for sponsorship but so far hasn’t come up trumps!”

The Daily Echo is planning publish a 16-page pull-out the day after the race.

Jenny said: “We’ll have a list of names of those that took part and heaps of pictures from the day. I’m sure we’ll be doing a first person piece on how emotional it was as well.”