A mum taking part in her first ever marathon this weekend has created an online community for other running mums to share their stories and advice.

Nadia Dickinson, from St Albans, will be running the London Marathon this Sunday to fulfil her bucket list and to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.

But with it being her first ever marathon, Ms Dickinson decided to turn to social media for support and encouragement.

She decided to post on a Facebook group ‘St Albans Mums’ to see if any other mums running the London Marathon were interested in creating another group where “St Albans running mums” could share advice, training plans and nutrition tips.

She added: “Anything that’s going to help get us round 26.2 miles.

“We have 27 St Albans mums running London, Brighton and Paris marathons – many first timers and a few seasoned marathon runners.

“All are mums with children aged one to 18 all taking on a huge task while looking after our children and working.”

Ms Dickinson has decided to run for Great Ormond Street Hospital to support her friends’ daughter who is currently receiving treatment there.

She said: “I cannot think of better motivation to get me round the route than beautiful Emily, without a doubt the bravest and toughest little girl I’ve ever met.”

Other mums which have shared their running stories are Nicky Laitner and Karen Sheard.

Ms Laitner, from St Albans, will be running for Chickenshed Inclusive Theatre in Southgate, a group which uses performance to bring together young people from all social and economic backgrounds and all abilities.

She said: “My wonderful daughter Charlotte who happens to have Down’s Syndrome is 16 and has been lucky enough to attend the drama group for about five year.

“Charlotte loves her time at Chickenshed where she can be proud of who she is and what she can achieve.”

Ms Sheard will be running the London Marathon for the second time and will be supporting Alzheimer’s Society in memory of both her grandmas.

She said: “Unfortunately – last time – I had to pull out half way through because I got shin splints.

“So here I am again, determined to raise money and determined to run all 26.2 miles and 385 yards in four hours and beat the time I ran in 2010 – 4:02:45.”

Ms Dickinson has so far raised £1,496.22.

To support her cause visit https://www.justgiving.com/NadiaDickinson.

To help Ms Laitner’s and Ms Sheard’s fundraising visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/NickyLaitner and http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/Thesmallrunnergirl.