TO MOST people it's just a bit of fun. An excuse to dress in cowboy hats and boots even.

But for three colleagues at Toft Road Surgery it has become quite a marathon after they line danced for 26 miles.

To do it, Margaret Thornborrow and her two friends had to learn 20 dance routines which they performed 200 times.

"The dance sheets are like tricky knitting patterns," she said.

"But I could knit a jersey better than I can do some of these dances."

In their weekly classes they performed more than 10 dances each - seven dances the same as one mile.

But two of the women are also swimming 26 miles during 75 visits to Knutsford Leisure Centre, which staff have allowed them to do for free.

"I've lost so much weight since I started doing this," said Margaret. "It's just falling off."

The fundraising schemes started out as moral support for Dr Rob Stephenson who is running in the New York Marathon in November.

"I promised one of my patients that the next fundraising event to come up I'd do it to raise money for kidney disease research," he said on Friday.

"But when I told Margaret and the receptionists they didn't want me to do it alone.

"Although they weren't up for the marathon they've done really well with the line dancing and swimming."

In fact it seems the three women may have been working harder than Dr Stephenson in the last few months.

"I'm not very good when it comes to training," he said. "I've only done one long run so I guess I should start doing some more.

"But I'm not as young as I used to be and I've been feeling it on my knees."

His colleagues on the other hand have been swimming three lunchtimes a week and line dancing at least once a week without fail.

"It's been hard to keep the swimming going because it's difficult to find the time," said Margaret.

"But I was line dancing anyway and it's great fun."

But getting the steps right is not as easy as it looks.

"The first time I did it the class would go one way and I'd go the other," she said. "But after all this practise I'm better at it now."

Dr Stephenson is due to run the 26 miles through the streets of New York on November 4 and so far the terrorist attacks on the city have not put a stop to the event.

"It's still on at the moment," he said. "But it's such a big event they may cancel it because of the security risks. I'll still run a marathon though - somewhere."

They are raising money for National Kidney Research Fund and to sponsor them call into the Toft Road Surgery or ring 632681.