Growing up in England Frances Stringfellow used to watch the London Marathon and used to think the competitors were 'crazy” to run it.

Come April 24, Frances - or Frankie as she is known to her friends - will be able to class herself as 'crazy” as she takes on the 42.195km race.

Frances Stringfellow will run at this year's London Marathon. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

Now living in the Mount, the Tauranga Hospital doctor says she will run the marathon to help raise funds for the New Zealand Cancer Society.

'I guess with my job we see cancer every day and you see how much it affects people. I'm really passionate about running and I just wanted to use it in a way that I thought would be as helpful as possible for some sort of cause like the New Zealand Cancer Society.

'I just thought if I could do something, it might not be much, but if I could do something for these people that's using something I enjoy, then hey that's cool.”

She chose the London Marathon because she used to watch it as a child.

'I used to watch it growing up and think it was ridiculous and now I'm going to do it. It's just crazy.”

Frances hopes to raise $7000 for the cause and would appreciate any donations to help her reach her target.

Donations can be made at https://londonmarathon2016.everydayhero.com/nz/frankie or if people want to make donations in other ways they can contact Frances via email francisstringfellow@icloud.com.

The 24-year-old is feeling confident about the run especially after she finished 15th in the Auckland Marathon recently.

It was only Frances' second marathon and she did it in a time of three hours and 11 minutes. She has set herself a goal for the London event.

'I'm hoping to do a sub-three hour marathon as well. So I've put an extra sort of pressure on myself I guess in that respect.”

Frances says she is having to clock up the kilometres to prepare herself for the event. This means fitting in her runs around her busy schedule at the hospital.

'It can be quite challenging. I guess the weekends are where I do my really long runs so that's okay. Some days I do 14 hour shifts, so I just have to set [my run] around before or after my shift.”