RUNNERS keen to enter next year's London Marathon can apply to local charity, Hospiscare, for a chance to take part.

Hospiscare has five golden bond places, which are guaranteed entries available after the race has closed to the general public.

"We are very excited to have these places," said Celia Wilkinson, Hospiscare running and challenge co-ordinator. "We have been trying since 2001 to get golden bond places and now we have five places for the next five years."

A condition of entry is raising £2,000 for Hospiscare, which every year cares for more than 2,000 terminally ill people and their families in Exeter, East and Mid Devon and has helped a total of 22,500 people since 1982.

Teams of Hospiscare nurses and doctors, specialising in end-of-life care, visit people in their own homes, in hospitals, in care homes and give 24-hour support at the Hospiscare Exeter hospice, as well as running day therapy centres in Exeter, Tiverton and Seaton.

Last year Hospiscare staff visited, among thousands of people, 120 people in their homes in Crediton, 133 in Okehampton, 202 in Tiverton and 479 in Exeter.

To receive a marathon application pack, please contact Celia by telephone on 01392 688093 or email: [email protected]">[email protected] . Applications close on October 31.