Lady Archer runs for charity

Lord Archer has given his wife some tips on running

Lady Archer will be among the runners taking part in a charity fun run in Cambridge on Sunday.

The 58-year-old wife of Lord Archer will be part of a team tackling the Chariots of Fire race - an event named after the Oscar-winning film.

She will line up with more than 2,000 other runners for the event which will be started by the film's director Lord Puttnam.

Lady Archer, who is chairman of the Addenbrooke's Hospital NHS Trust, decided to run after race organisers adopted the Cambridge Breast Unit at the hospital as the designated charity.

She said: "This year is the first time that the race is being run for the benefit of Addenbrooke's so that prompted me to buy some running shoes.

Tips from Lord Archer

"It's very painful. Running isn't as easy as it looks and I haven't done much before."

Lady Archer has been preparing for the race in the gym, road running in her home village of Grantchester and has even run the actual route twice.

She has also enlisted the help of her husband, who won an Oxford blue for athletics, to give her some training advice.

She added: "It's very different when you're running on the road compared to the gym. Jeffrey has been helping with the training because, of course, he was a good sportsman."

Lady Archer will be one of a team of six runners from Addenbrooke's who will each run 1.7 miles around Cambridge.

The Chariots of Fire race, now in its 12th year, sees teams compete for the Sir Arthur Marshall Cup - named in honour of the race's honorary 100-year-old president and member of the 1924 Olympic team.

The race starts at 0930 BST on Sunday.