In pictures: Santa Dash event raises more £700 for Worksop's Aurora Wellbeing Centre

The Worksop Santa Dash saw people young and old get their trainers on as it returned for the third time to raise money for children services at the Aurora Wellbeing Centre in Worksop.

The event saw 67 festive runners take part in the three-kilometre dash each earning themselves a special medal before enjoying a sweet treat at the cake sale and playing in the raffle.

Organised by Worksop group Run the Wall, the fun run raised a total of £736 on Saturday December 18.

Thanks to the help of 25 volunteers, runners were kept on the right track as they ran through Worksop College’s playing fields.

Run the Wall was set up by a group of runners after mother-of-two Sarah Johnson was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in 2019.

Sarah began to wonder what support her children could get locally if her health declined.

While recovering from a mastectomy, Sarah and her husband, Chris, decided they would raise money for the Aurora Centre to help them extend their services to provide support to children whose parents have been diagnosed with cancer.

It was decided that Run the Wall would run the whole 135-kilometres of Hadrian’s Wall as a fundraising event.

Unfortunately this run has been postponed twice until May 2022, but in that time the group of runners have successfully raised over £51,000 through events like the Santa Dash.

Chris Johnson said the event went exactly as they all hoped.

“It was a great atmosphere, everyone just had a right laugh, it was brilliant,” he said.

“We had such a bunch of different people from different backgrounds and different abilities. Everyone just cheered everyone on.

“We had a young lad who was the fastest under-11 county level for cross country who came, and then at the other end of the spectrum, we had younger runners with grandparents and whole families running.

“Volunteers were as vital as the runners and we had quite a big bunch of people in the end who committed time to it which was fantastic.”

The team look forward to returning again next year to help raise more funds for Aurora.