Sainsbury's boss joins Shrewsbury run

Mr King joined staff from the town's Sainsbury's supermarket, youngsters from local schools and members of the public to take part in the Sport Relief Mile run on playing fields at Meole Brace School. It was part of a three-day drive he was taking on to run a mile in 17 different regions of Britain.

Many of those taking part in today's run performed a flash mob dance - including mayor of Shrewsbury Councillor Jon Tandy and Shrewsbury Town FC's mascot Lenny the Lion.

Justin King had driven in as part of a three day drive to run a mile in 17 different regions of the UK.

Emily Bacon, spokeswoman for Sainsbury's, said 40 representatives from stores in the area were running, as well as sponsors and members of the public.

"It's big Kudos to have Justin King up here for the run," she said.

She said staff and customers were also pedalling 1,000 miles on 48 exercise bikes in-store, among other fundraising sporting events.

Mr King said: "This is my fourth time doing it, I do it every other year because of course it alternates with Comic Relief.

"I'm doing it a bit differently this time, I normally do one in each region which is about 32 over four days. This time I'm doing 17 over three days so some the regions are doubling up, and I'll be finishing with a triathlon in the Olympic Park on Sunday.

"I've done seven so far and it's about mid way through that it starts to hurt.

"I did QPR on Wednesday and five yesterday in Belfast, Edinburgh, Teesside, Doncaster and Warrington.

"It's going ok, I know that my pace is slow but any more than that and it goes wrong.

"The hard bit is in between, sitting cold in the the car for an hour between each run.

"Across Sainsbury's we're hoping to raise £6.5 million. Sport relief is a bit of a tradition at Sainsbury's, about £1 in every £10 raised as part of Sport Relief and Comic Relief comes from Sainsbury's."

Meole Brace School PE teacher Jess Sanders, who helped organise the event, said pupils at Meole Brace had all run the Sport Relief mile and raised £700 already. She said a group of 20 students had been selected from the school to run with Mr King, including Harry Lewis, 16, who has just been selected to play for Shrewsbury Town FC, Jake Walker, 13, who plays with Aston Villa under 13s, and Robyn Vickers, 16, who runs for Shropshire.

Robyn, from Meole Brace, said: "I ran the Edinburgh Schools 3,000 metres last weekend, so this will be quite easy I think," she said.