TWO North-East sisters raised almost £1,700 for a local charity after organising a 'move-a-thon'

Petra and Thora Vardy, aged 11 and eight, challenged themselves and schoolfriends at their school Fountains Earth Church of England Primary School to exercise for as long as they could.

From jumping, skipping, and running on the spot, to dancing and practising gymnastics Thora moved for one-hour and 50 minutes and Petra moved for two hours and 26 minutes.

Petra said: "We learn about Jesus at school but in all the stories he’s doing something – healing the ill, helping the poor or the lonely. We’d always thought we can’t heal the sick or anything like that but we could do something.

"We thought maybe we’d manage to get a couple of our friends involved and maybe raise a couple of hundred pounds, but our move-a-thon began slowly to grow and it was amazing to see it blossom into something so amazing."

Thora said: "To anyone doing something like this, you’re going to make a real difference to people’s lives.