THE was a Christmas event to top them all in Malpas this week when youngsters at a primary school ran to the North Pole and back, all for a children's charity.

Malpas Alport Parents and Teacher Association (PTA), in Chester Road, held a 'Reindeer Run' to raise money for the school and also for Oswestry-based Hope House children's hospice, a charity close to many Alport families' hearts past and present.

The PTA asked the children to run the equivalent distance from Malpas Alport Primary School to the North Pole (2552 miles!) Each lap of our obstacle course represented 50 miles and between them children from our Preschool to Year 6 ran over 52 laps.

Moe Hutson, the Malpas PTA chairman, said the run was kindly sponsored by Cornhill Coffee Services who donated money for them to put on this event, ensuring every child had a medal for taking part.

More added: "We had donated obstacles from Threapwood Christmas Trees and Corbetts of Malpas too.

"In total the children raised over £2,300 which is amazing and we are donating £1,200 of the money raised to Hope House.

"It was really great to see the children having so much fun after such a challenging couple of years at school.

"The children really embraced our obstacle course, running through the trees, jumping our snowy hurdles, dodging the snowballs and snow blizzards and running with our wild reindeer.

"A huge thank you to all the children and their families to raise such an amazing amount of money for our chosen charity."