A BISHOP and his daughter are taking part in a 10-mile charity run to raise funds for Zambian children orphaned by Aids.

The Rt Rev Colin Fletcher, the Bishop of Dorchester, and his daughter Pippa, 26, are training for the Great South Run to support the Oxfordshire-based charity Cecily’s Fund.

The fund was set up in 1998 by Alison and Basil Eastwood, in memory of their daughter Cecily. The 19-year-old, from Stonesfield, was killed in a road accident in 1997 while on a gap year volunteering with orphans in Zambia.

Bishop Colin said: “I first got to know about Cecily’s Fund when I was working with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“The work that it is doing is quite magnificent and I count it as a great privilege to be running for it this year.

“Pippa’s just qualified as a doctor and she will have got married three weeks before, so October promises to be pretty eventful.

“Kate, my other daughter, is also running, so it will definitely be a family event.”

The sponsorship raised by him and Pippa will help to provide Zambia’s poorest children with shoes, uniforms, books and pens, and help with school fees.

Schools across Oxfordshire joined a fundraising effort to help the charity in April, with 5p from 12,500 school dinners going to the charity. The event raised £625.

The Great South Run, which takes place in Portsmouth on October 24, is one of Europe’s most popular 10-mile races, attracting more than 23,000 runners, including top athletes each year.

Kate, 24, is taking part in the run to raise money for Dreams Come True, a charity helping terminally ill children.

  • To sponsor Bishop Colin and Pippa, go to cecilysfund.org/ colin or call 01993 869005
  • Cecily’s Fund is supporting more than 9,500 children through school in Zambia.

Each year, the charity also helps 35-40 school leavers train as teachers and 50 to train as health educators.

It costs just 5p a day to provide a child with a meal.

For more information about the charity, go to cecilysfund.org