REBECCA Baxter will pack her bags on Saturday morning and leave her husband and three children. But before you start getting worried the Baxter family is expecting her departure. After leaving the family home in Station Road, Lower Stondon, Mrs Baxter, 43

REBECCA Baxter will pack her bags on Saturday morning and leave her husband and three children. But before you start getting worried the Baxter family is expecting her departure.

After leaving the family home in Station Road, Lower Stondon, Mrs Baxter, 43, will join her mother, sister and an aunt and fly to New York.

There she will run the New York Marathon on Sunday, do a little Christmas shopping before returning home on Tuesday morning

Hopefully her family and friends at nearby Mount Pleasant Golf Club, owned by her parents David and Ruth Simkins, will be able to catch a glimpse of her on TV.

"I earned my place in the New York Marathon after finishing with a good time of 3h 36m in Paris last year," said Mrs Baxter, who will be running her seventh marathon and making her first visit to the US.

"I have been training hard around the roads near my home running up to 40 miles a week and I aim to try and beat my Paris time.

"But my aim is to raise around �2,000 for the Alzheimer's Society because my mother-in-law has had the disease now for six years so I have experienced the decline in her condition and the effect it has had on her close family and friends.

"Not only has it robbed her of the life as it was, it has affected all the family. It really is a very sad and distressing process for everyone so I am determined to finish the New York Marathon and raise as much as I can for the Alzheimer's Society."

If you want to support Rebecca you can by logging on to www.justgiving.com/Rebecca-BaxterNYM