MORE than 850 runners took part in Tunbridge Wells’ Race for Life in Dunorlan Park on Sunday (June 4) to raise money for Cancer Research UK and help fight the disease.
The non-competitive 5km ‘run, jog or walk’ was twinned with a more fiercely contested Pretty Muddy 5K, an obstacle course race at the same venue the day before.
The weekend was aiming to raise £70,000 for research into all 200 types of cancer.
It was one of 300 events held across the country, staged with the motto: ‘Show cancer that hell hath no fury like a woman in pink’.
Sofia Baguley was taking part in Race for Life for the eighth time. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, survived and decided to run the following year.
‘We always make lots of friends
and hear inspiring stories from people’
For the last four years, Mrs Baguley has run the Race for Life with her children James, 12, and Gabriela, 10 (pictured right).
“Before I had cancer, I thought it was something that only happened to other people,” she said.
“I’d never ran before in my life. I was asthmatic as a child and I used to avoid it. But now I do the Park Run [in Dunorlan] every weekend.”
She paid tribute to the work of Cancer Research UK, saying: “More and more people, including myself, are surviving because of their research. I feel very fortunate. I’m fitter and healthier than ever before.
“We love the Race for Life, the kids really enjoy it and we like to get into the atmosphere.
“We always make lots of friends and hear inspiring stories from people. It is all about the community coming together, because everyone knows someone affected by cancer.”
Since Race for Life began in 1994, around six million participants across the UK have raised over £493million for the charity.
If you would like to make a donation, visit www.cancerresearchuk.org
