AN USK mum-of-two will tackle her first marathon looking to raise thousands of pounds for charity later this month.

Emma Hamar, 43, will run the London Marathon on Sunday, April 26 for Diabetes UK. She said she has been motivated to raise funds for the charity because several members of her family suffer from Type 2 diabetes while friends of her two sons, Jamie and Jack, suffer with Type 1 diabetes.

And she said she had been struck by the impact the condition can have on sufferers and those close to them.

Mrs Hamar, who is married to Matthew and lives on Abergavenny Road, started training in January and has previously run half marathons in Cardiff and Bristol.

She said she was now looking to reduce the length of her runs in preparation for it in just over a fortnight.

She added: “I did 20 miles down to Caerleon and back and that was kind of the last big run before it.”

She has set herself a £2,000 fundraising target and said she hopes to complete the marathon course in between four and a half and five hours.

So far the NHS worker has raised about £850 on her online JustGiving fundraising page and is hoping to collect more cash with a charity concert put on by her brother-in-law and the lead singer in the Usk band CoDA, Tim Southern, who is playing for free.

Tickets for the gig, which will be held at the town’s Memorial Hall, are £10 and available from Usk Post Office.

Mr Southern also raised £130 for the fundraising drive by busking outside Usk’s Co-Op store on Bridge Street on the morning of March 28, which has gone straight into the marathon collection.

For details on Mrs Hamar’s marathon, visit justgiving.com/Emma-Hamar-LondonMarathon-DiabetesUK