SOCCER: The man with chairman Colin Garlick could be about to give Macclesfield Town their latest bit of TV exposure.

For somewhere among the people dressed as clowns and giant chickens running this year's televised London Marathon will be Silkmen fan Fran Pyatt.

Fran will be wearing a special Macc shirt presented to him by club chairman Colin Garlick as he takes on the 26.2 mile course to raise money for the Samaritans.

And the club have also agreed to hold a collection at their home game with York this Saturday to help Fran with his fundraising.

The Bangor University student, of Appleby Close, is hoping to raise more than £1,000 when he takes part in the race on April 14.

He said: "Like all charities, the Samaritans need as much money as they can get, and I just want to do what I can to help."

Running the London Marathon has been a long-held ambition for the 22-year-old.

He applied to take part after going down to the capital to watch his fellow Bangor student Jon Hilditch compete last year.

But Fran admitted that the size of the challenge facing him took a while to sink in.

He said: "When I found out that I'd got in for this year's race, my first reaction was: 'Brilliant'. And then after that I thought about it for a bit and realised that it was going to be quite a bit of work.

"I do quite a lot of sport though, so I like to consider myself quite fit anyway. I know a few runners, and I started training well before Christmas just to build up the miles."

Fran has also been helped by sportswear firm adidas, which has provided him with a pair of trainers for the race.

And he is hoping that he won't be crowded out by the thousands of runners taking part.

He said: "You are grouped together in batches on the starting line according to how fast you think you will go.

"I'm towards the middle, so I will probably be crossing the start line about five minutes after the race begins."

Fran has set himself three targets for next month's race.

He said: "First of all I want to finish, because it has been a long-standing ambition to take part in the London Marathon.

"Secondly, it would be nice to get close to a finishing time of four hours. And thirdly, I want to enjoy it."

And he is unfazed at the possibility of being accosted at 20 miles by Garth Crooks or Steve Rider on the big day. "You never know what might happen," he said. "If Steve Rider comes up to me for an interview, it will give the club a bit of publicity."