Thousands of people packed Weston Park for the first combined Race for Life for Shrewsbury and Telford.

Nearly 5,000 runners had registered to take part in the fundraiser, which organisers are hoping will raise at least £220,000 for Breast Cancer UK. Stuart Craddock, park operations manager at Weston Park, estimated there were about 8,000 people in the grounds for the event.

He said: “It went very well, it was very busy and very well attended.

“They had 4,600 runners confirmed. Everybody who came had a great time, the route worked really well and we had some very good feedback from participants.

“We should have an idea over the next few days how much it raised, we’ve been told on the day donations were quite healthy.”

Challenging

It was the first time the Race for Life had been held at Weston Park. Previously a race had been held at Shrewsbury’s West Midlands Showground and another at Telford Town Park.

Mr Craddock added: “Everyone who started the race finished, there were no injuries and nobody needed to be taken off site. One or two said it was quite a challenging route but they enjoyed it and people could see bits of the park they hadn’t seen before.”

Emily Smith, area events manager for Cancer Research UK, said: “It was really good, it was our first event at Weston. The atmosphere was really good and we had a lot of things going on, including games and a bouncy castle.

“The rain held off and it wasn’t really warm which was good for the participants. We had 1,100 people doing the 10km and the rest were doing the 5km.”

She said they had a target of 4,000 people taking part. Based on sponsorship, they stand to raise £220,000. Since the event began in 1994 more than £370 million has been raised.

By Hannah Costigan