CHESTER women turned out in their thousands to ‘join the girls’ at Tesco and Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life at the Chester Racecourse on Sunday.

Toddlers, teenagers and twenty-somethings joined together with mums, grans, aunties, friends and workmates in a spectacular array of fairy wings, feather boas and fancy dress in every shade of pink imaginable.

Now organisers are saying a heart-felt thanks to everyone who took part. And they are asking them to make all the fun and emotion of the big day count – by returning the money they have raised to Cancer Research UK, where it will be used to fund research which saves lives.

Tesco and Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life is the UK’s largest women-only fundraising event series. Women of all ages and fitness levels came together to walk, jog or run 5k to help beat cancer.

Cancer survival rates have doubled since the 1970s and Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of that progress.

Gemma Turpin, Race for Life event manager for Chester, said: “Race for Life in Chester was a fantastic event and we are so very grateful to everyone who took part or supported our participants, as well as the wonderful volunteers who helped make the event happen.

“Now the big day is over, we are asking our supporters to take one last step – by returning the money they have raised so that we can go on funding much needed research.”

Gemma added: “Despite improvements in treatment, we still have a long way to go. One in four people in the UK will die from cancer. With the help of people in Chester we want to change that.”

For information on returning sponsorship money, or to make a donation, visit www.raceforlife.org.