An ex-service woman has been pushing herself to the limit for good causes throughout October.

Bernadette Rigby, a Colerne resident and ex-member of the Royal Signals, has run an average of 21km a day as she aims to use her fitness to help charities.

As part of her 55th birthday celebrations she is running 555km in October.

Mrs Rigby is raising cash for three different charities, Parkinson’s UK, the Royal British Legion and Springboard, a pre-school designed for children with special need located in Chippenham.

She said: “After 23 years in the army I am still fit.

“I wanted to take on this challenge as an army friend of mine was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

“Different people I know in Colerne have also been diagnosed with Parkinson’s.”

Mrs Rigby says she has found the support and stories of the people of Colerne a huge inspiration for her activities and this is reflected in the causes she has chosen to champion.

This isn’t the first time Mrs Rigby has used her fitness to raise money for charity.

Since 2013 she has raised around £10,000 for charities both local and nationwide.

She has also run the London Marathon four times in aid of Parkinson’s UK and Prostate Cancer UK.

Along with five other women she used her military contacts to organise jumping out a plane in 2015, raising almost £3,000 for PLANETS cancer charity.

Since the first day of October, Mrs Rigby has run 475km and is due to complete her 555km target total on her birthday on Thursday.

On November 1, she will do one final run from the Springboard School in Chippenham to her home in Colerne.

Helen Ashton, community fundraiser for the school, is organising a send off for Mrs Rigby who will run 11km back to Colerne as a nod to the Royal British Legion and Remembrance Day.