THREE brothers from Suffolk have decided to put on a birthday bash with a difference to raise money for sick children.

Mark Persich, 29, and his brothers Nick, 26, and Tom, 23, will be celebrating his birthday by completing the Berlin Marathon this month to raise money for East Anglia's Children's Hospices (EACH).

The trio, originally from Aldeby, took part in the Bungay Half Marathon in 2008 and Mark explained why he wanted to do another:

'I thought I would do something a bit different for my 30th birthday. I always had a goal of doing a full marathon and the Berlin 2011 is perfect - it's flat. Thanks to both my brothers for doing it with me, they are legends. And thanks to everyone for thinking about donating.

'We thought we would try and do something for a charity close to where we were all brought up.'

Tom added: 'It is a good thing for us to do together. There are also a lot of children who haven't been as lucky as us so we wanted to raise money to for EACH to help the kids.

'I think we are all fairly confident about running the marathon. We are aiming to raise at least �500.'

• If you would like to donate visit Mark's Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/persich