THE starting gun has been fired for a weekend of charity fun as air crew and ground staff at RAF Benson joined schoolchildren today to run a Sports Relief Mile along the runway.

More than 300 people took part in today’s fancy dress event, including all 150 children at RAF Benson Primary School.

Eight military transport drivers pulled a Land Rover carrying Station Warrant Officer Mick Lindop down the length of the runway, with 100 other base personnel taking part.

Base spokesman Nikki Hamilton said: “We had a padre dressed as a clown riding a unicycle, our personnel support flight team were all dressed as the 118 guys, and the station medical officer was dressed as a gorilla. We had both ends of a pantomime horse, Batman and Robin, and Big Bird there too.

“It was great fun. We are hoping to do it again next year.”

Meanwhile members of the base’s athletics team started a 24-hour treadmill run in the gymnasium at noon.

At Cherwell School in Oxford, more than 1,000 pupils and members of staff took part in a one-mile run, including history teacher Luke Brown and science teacher Jake Jones, who dressed as two halves of a pantomime horse and sixth-formers Cameo Brown, 17, and Claire Wiseman, 16, who set out to cover 13 miles – the distance of a half-marathon wearing diving flippers.

PE teacher Neil Busby, who organised the event, said: “It’s the first time we have done this, and it was fantastic. It was good because it gets the students to run and gets them healthy, while having a lot of fun at the same time.

“The kids were fantastic – they got really involved in the whole event.”

In Didcot, staff at Sainsbury's in the Orchard Centre, ran legs of a marathon around the store in 230 laps.

Staff member Karen Hayward said: “We got a lot of donations from people coming into the store. People were really positive and we all had a great time."

A number of other of events are taking place across Oxfordshire over the weekend.

Sport Relief Miles are being run on Sunday at Cutteslowe and Sunnymead Park in Oxford; the Heythrop Park Hotel, near Enstone; Thame Recreational Ground; Warriner School in Bloxham; Ardington & Lockinge Recreation Ground; and at Willowbrook Leisure Centre in Didcot.