A Glastonbury man who won a place in this year's London Marathon is hoping to find 50 local sponsors to help him raise £1,000 to split 50:50 between two charities.

Andrew Brown pledged to run a marathon by the time he was 50. The clock is ticking as he turns 50 on February 14.

The Tor T-shirt Co, based in Walton, has agreed to produce a marathon T-shirt for free for Andrew on which the company names of all his sponsors will be printed.

Andrew started running after quitting smoking in 2010. He ran 10k for cancer research and did the Yeovil and Bristol half marathons in 2011.

He was thrilled to win a place in the biggest UK event, the London Marathon, taking place on April 22 this year and decided to raise money for two charities, the RNLI Lifeboats and TeamPB (a collaboration of the Prostate Cancer and Breast Cancer charities).

Andrew won his place in the London 2012 Marathon by entering a Christmas competition on the Virgin Money Giving website, where he said "you had to fire human canon balls over land and fire into a tin of baked beans".

Friends and family have been very supportive although Andrew said: "My kids were amazed I went for the marathon as a prize instead of an iPad or iPhone.

Andrew, who works as an engineer in Bristol, is doing most of his training down Kennard Moor Drove across the Levels out to Coxbridge and West Pennard. He said: "For a shorter but hilly route I'll go around the Tor to Wick and see how I fair with my nemesis – Stone Down Lane."

To sponsor Andrew email him at fam ily-brown@tiscali.co.uk or visit his fundraising page on https://uk.virginmoney giving.com/giving/.