PEOPLE will not have to get out of their pyjamas today, as hundreds across the town mark the annual Children in Need appeal.

The event will see schools and businesses helping disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.

Staff at the Esso service station in Rodbourne started a 24-hour triathlon yesterday, using gym equipment.

Supervisor Karen Rose said: “It includes a 26-mile run, a 26-mile cycle and a 26,000-metre row, as well. We always like to do our part.

“There will be a team of four against myself. I will be doing the whole of the challenge.”

Children from Lydiard Park Academy are preparing to sing their hearts out tonight, as they join thousands across the country to perform a song for Children in Need at STEAM.

Some 80 pupils from the school in Greendown and eight of its feeder primary schools will join another 170 students in the South West for a performance of the song Bridge Over Troubled Water.

It will be fronted by Points West’s Alex Lovell, from 6pm to 10pm.

Lydiard Park head of performing arts Laura Few, who will conduct the choir, said: “I think it is only just hitting home how big this event is.”

Police officer Adam Leakey, of Swindon, will be completing three marathons in three days today, in Marlborough, alongside his colleague, Jon Hewlett.