LACES are being tightened and costumes adjusted in preparation for the Flora London Marathon on Sunday, April 22.

The race celebrates its 21st anniversary this year and millions of people around the world will watch the mixed field of professional athletes and brave fun runners take to the streets.

Around 30,000 people are expected to take part in the event, the majority on behalf of charities. Last year, more than three-quarters of the field were charity runners, raising a staggering £24 million.

Among the local people taking part this year are Ledbury mechanic Matthew Panter, who will be running on behalf of the Roy Castle Foundation.

He has managed to raise around £1,400 in sponsorship so far and finished a 22-mile training run last week with no problems.

"As long as I don't get injured, it should all go well," he said.

Brothers Stuart and Joe Webb are keeping the race in the family and train together once a week.

Stuart, who works at the Morgan Motor Company in Malvern, is raising money for the National Society for Epilepsy, a condition from which his nephew suffers. He ran the race last year and raised £1,000 for the Worcester Hospital Children's Ward.

"I enjoyed it last year, so I thought I'd give it another go," he said.

Joe, who works for Mundy Conservatories in Kempsey, is hoping to raise £2,000 for the Antony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust. It's his first marathon but he says it won't be his last.

"It's quite addictive really, in a strange sort of way," he said.

Andy Merrick, owner of the Flying Pig Pizza restaurant in Bromyard, has been running up and down Fromes Hill in preparation for the big event.

Despite training since December, Mr Merrick said he was not sure of what he was letting himself in for.

"The hardest thing has been getting up at 6am in the morning to go running, which hasn't been great with all the rain we've been having," he said.

He is hoping to run the race in about 4 hours 30 mins and raise at least £1,000 for the Pencombe-based Matthew Davies Leukaemia Fund.

"I chose this fund because my partner's son was good friends with Matthew at school," he said.

Matthew's mother, Karen, set up the fund three years ago, after Matthew died of leukaemia. So far, £10,000 has been raised for leukaemia research, Cheltenham Hospital where Matthew was treated, and other cancer-related charities.

Mark Cooling, of Pound Bank Road, Malvern, is fundraising for Breakthrough to Breast Cancer and hopes to collect around £2,000. He says he was persuaded to enter by friends at the Cross Keys pub who have been involved with the charity for some time.

Surprisingly, he says that this particular type of exercise never really appealed to him.

"I can't stand running," he said, "I always skived it at school."

But should the London race go well, Mr Cooling, who works at LGG Charlesworth in Spring Lane, hopes to run in the Boston Marathon next year.

Ann Hume, assistant headteacher at Hanley Castle High School, is aiming to raise around £1,500 in aid of The Stroke Association.

Despite being the form head of PE at the school, Ms Hume said she had found the training far from easy.

"I thought that I was fairly fit, but I soon found I needed a totally different kind of fitness," she said.

Although she runs over seven miles to work four days a week, Ms Hume was adamant when asked if she would repeat the race next year.

"Not a chance," she said. "This is a one-off!"

Retired Broom's Green bank manager David Houghton is running to raise money for Age Concern Ledbury, a charity of which he is a trustee.

Mr Houghton, who competed in the 1999 race, hopes to raise £5,000 between himself and Brett Martin, his running partner, who together cover Herefordshire and Worcester-shire.

Cheering them on will be around 500,000 people on the streets of London itself, a BBC TV audience of around five million with millions more in 143 countries around the world, as well as radio listeners.

The event has its genesis in November 1979, when athlete Chris Brasher took part in the New York City Marathon and later wrote an article for The Observer.

The result was a move towards a London event, Brasher preparing a budget and managing to raise sponsorship.

The first event was held on March 29, 1981 with a field of 7,747 out of around 20,000 people interested in running.