LIPHOOK infant and junior school staff and pupils were challenged to run, jog or walk a mile for this year’s Sport Relief, which raised more than £900 for the charity.

While TV comedian Eddie Izzard ran 27 marathons in 27 days in South Africa as part of the biennial BBC appeal, classes from both the infants and juniors took on a slightly less arduous, but equally valuable task in aid of the charity.

Pupils paired up to run together and support each other over the course which added to the excitement of the day and children enjoyed the challenge of completing four laps to make up their mile.

The money raised also included proceeds from a cake sale organised by some Junior school students, with more sponsorship money to follow.

Elsewhere in the villages, shoppers an staff at Sainsbury’s go in the spirit of the weekend activities.

Meanwhile, staff at Sainsbury’s Liphook store were involved in several fundraising activities over the weekend in aid of Sport Relief.

Shoppers could guess the number of footballs in the net and win a gift voucher or guess the amount of chocolate Easter eggs in a jar, which was also the prize.

Dressed in Sport Relief T-shirts, staff sold merchandise as well as scratch cards, held a quiz night in the store’s canteen and displayed donation buckets all over the store for the charity.

Organiser Vicky Farmer told The Herald: “Our long-time staff member Rita Whitlock, a natural chatter-box, pledged a two day silence during her two eight-hour shifts at the checkout, helping to raise extra funds.

“She printed off lots of cards with instructions for shoppers and managed to achieve her goal without uttering a single word.

“All monies raised in the Liphook store over the next two weeks will be added to the grand total raised by Sainsbury’s staff across the country.”