Devizes teenagers Catherine Russ and Alana Cox will be among the estimated 500 starters in this year’s Devizes to Westminster canoe race, setting off from The Wharf on Good Friday.

The 16-year-olds will not just be attempting the gruelling 125-mile endurance race to set the best time they can, but they will also be trying to raise money for charity.

For Catherine, or Cat to her friends and family, it is following a family tradition.

Cat’s sister Caroline and brother Charles have both taken part as students at Dauntsey’s School.

Cat is a year 11 pupil at Devizes School, which hasn’t traditionally entered crews, so she has teamed up with Alana, who is in the sixth form at Dauntsey’s.

Cat’s mum, Teresa Russ, explained that the girls have support crewed for family members in previous years but were determined to paddle the course themselves.

She said: “They have been training three and sometimes four times a week since the summer of 2008, both on the Kennet and Avon Canal and the Thames.

“They have also competed in the Waterside and Thameside races this year to get them used to competitive canoeing.

“They are easily recognisableas they wear fluorescent pink headgear to help their support crews see them approaching.”

Alana is raising funds for the Teenage Cancer Trust and Cat is seeking sponsorship jointly for an aid trip to Kenya she is undertaking with Devizes School in 2010, and the Devizes Moonrakers Athletics Club.

Entries for this year are holding up well and are expected to be at least as high as last year, which was a special 60th anniversary.

Dauntsey’s School is entering nine crews: Olly Goodall and Jack Tawney, George Gurney and George Hobbs, David Elmes and Alex Newman, Charlie Bouch and George Duffield, Jessie Kenneth and Archie Campbell, Chezzie Derry-Evans and Rory Wilkes, Sophie Collins and Tom Bodman, Rosie Nutland and Sophie Churcher and Jessica Eayrs and Olivia Ford.