Emotions ran high among women taking part in annual cancer fund-raiser (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Emotions ran high among women taking part in annual cancer fund-raiser

WOMEN from all over Wiltshire were among those taking part in the Race For Life at Swindon's Lydiard Park in memory of loved ones.

Gina Bridewell, of Devizes, said her late father Malcolm Maslen inspired her to finish the event on Saturday.

The race raised money for Cancer Research UK.

Mrs Bridewell's father died of cancer in December 2003 at the age of 68.

Mrs Bridewell, 32, of John Rennie Close, had done no training for the event and said she was not fit. For the first four kilometres she walked with her race partner Jean Wakefield, a friend and neighbour, but she ran the remaining kilometre and completed the race in just over an hour, raising £480.

Mrs Bridewell, who works as a barmaid at the Rising Sun pub in Devizes, said: "I imagined my dad was standing there saying 'come on, come on' and that helped me to finish.

"It was absolutely brilliant and the atmosphere was just amazing. It was very emotional. People had pinned to their backs the names of family and friends who either had cancer or had died from cancer and this included children."

This year the event had to be extended to two races, one on Saturday and one on Sunday, because so many women wanted to take part.

Among them were staff at Chippenham's Focus DIY, who are already planning their next charity walk in memory of two colleagues who died of cancer. On Saturday a 14-strong team of women from the Bath Road store joined about 6,000 other runners in the Race for Life in memory of their friends Sue Richardson and Lynne Morris. Together they raised more than £1,100.

Gerri Small, 37, of Pipsmore Road, Chippenham, was best friends with mother-of-four Mrs Richardson.

Mrs Richardson lived with her partner Rob Sartain on London Road, Chippenham and died from breast cancer last February after being diagnosed two-years earlier. Mrs Small said: "It was a wonderful day and we all vowed that we'd stick together and cross the finish line as a team so that's what we did.

"It was very exciting at the beginning but it also got quite emotional reading all the signs people were wearing explaining why they were doing it, especially the young children. I'm sure Sue would have been watching us and I know she would have been laughing."

The team were also walking in memory of mother-of-two Lynne Morris who died of throat cancer within a year of Mrs Richardson.

Saturday's team captain Diane Hunt first met mother-of-two Mrs Morris 16 years ago. Mrs Hunt said: "We all linked arms as we crossed the finish line and it was an emotional day and we shared many memories."

The overall target for the Swindon races was £390,000.