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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Victoria Johns

EastEnders cast honour co-star Barbara Windsor by joining stars running London Marathon

The cast of EastEnders is representing today in the London Marathon as they race for Babs' Army.

Actors including Natalie Cassidy, Lacey Turner and Adam Woodyatt are all running for Alzheimer's Research in memory of their late co-star Barbara Windsor.

Mum-of-two Natalie, 39, who plays Sonia Fowler in the soap, was up nice and early as she shared a snap of herself with DJ Chris Evans.

Dressed in her running gear with the London skyline behind her, she captioned the post: "The best person to see on marathon day @chrisevanstfi. Let's do this! We are all so lucky to be doing this today @babsarmy."

The actress also popped up in a post with co-stars Lacey Turner and Heather Peace, who plays Eve Unwin in the soap.

The cast of EastEnders is representing today in the London Marathon as they race for Babs' Army (Instagram)
Natalie with DJ Chris Evans (Instagram)

As the pals hugged each other, Lacey, who stars as Stacey Slater in EastEnders, wrote: "Let's do this," followed by a heart emoji.

The actresses were joined by Adam Woodyatt and Barbara's husband Scott Mitchell, who shared a lovely photo of the gang having a pre-marathon meal.

Adam and Natalie also posted a snap of themselves alongside athlete Richard Whitehead as they got ready to race.

Adam is running in memory of Barbara (REX/Shutterstock)
The EastEnders actresses hugged ahead of the race (Instagram)

Sadly, their co-star Jake Wood, who played Max Branning in the soap, can't compete because of a chest infection.

However, he told us before his health concern: “We all knew Barbara and loved her. She was an amazing person. It’s an honour to be doing this in her memory."

Also running in the marathon is Radio 1 DJ Adele Roberts. She told her fans on Twitter this morning she was ready for action as she posted a photo of herself and stoma bag, 'Audrey'.

Babs' Army (REX/Shutterstock)

The inspirational star was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 and has campaigned fearlessly to raise awareness of the disease, which sadly took the life of Dame Deborah James.

Adele looked in great spirits as she shared a video of herself on Instagram telling fans she was in the final preparation stages ahead of the race.

TOWIE star Mark Wright is a big fan of the London Marathon and this year he's running it with his parents.

He took to Instagram sharing a video of 'Big Mark', Carol and brother Josh all pounding the pavement in their running gear.

Ahead of the race, he told us: “We’re going to run it together. Put it this way, if he [Josh] decided I was going too slowly and ran off by himself, I’d never speak to him again.”

Big Mark, 66, wasn’t sure he would be able to do the marathon due to a spinal injury. He said: “Back in 2002 I had a prolapsed disc so it’s a little bit harder for me to walk for five, six hours.”

However, his son joked “My dad’s what you call a quitter. It was his knee a month ago, then his wrist and now it’s his back.”

Carol, who looks more than ready for the race, added: "I think he thinks I’ll take a chair on marathon day.”

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