'Emotional' Race for Life in Wolverhampton as people run in memory of their loved ones

Hundreds of people donned pink clothes on Sunday to run the 5K route around the park in order to raise money for the urgent cause.

For many people, it was a testament to their loved ones who had tragically passed away from cancer.

Staff at Brewood Medical Practice decided to run as a team in order to raise money for the vital work done by Cancer Research UK.

Running the Race for Life was Michelle Giles, Susan Ryan, Donna Edwards, Addison Jenks, Charlene Eccleston and Sara Jenks.

Michelle Giles, the operations manager at the practice, told the Express & Star: "We've all run it individually before so this is the first time we've done it as a team.

"It was great as a team, having fun, being together, and supporting each other along the way. The atmosphere was really good and the weather helped as well."

Michelle was running for her mother, Sheila Cook, who sadly passed away from cancer.

"All of us have had family members with cancer," the 43-year-old from Oxley said.

Mother and daughter, Jayne and Jessica Pitcher from Ettingshall Park, also ran the 5K together - a running tradition for the two of them.

The pair were running in memory of Jayne's parents and Jessica's grandparents, Pam and Alan Gutteridge, both of whom they sadly lost to cancer. Pam had suffered from breast cancer, and Alan from lung cancer.

Speaking about running Race for Life with her daughter, the 53-year-old childminder said: "It was amazing, so emotional but fantastic. We've run it every year for the last six or seven years.

"We lost my mom and dad to cancer, and it's affected lots of family members. We've lost friends. This is our way of doing something to help."

Another participant who ran with her family was 36-year-old Kim Sherwood from Dudley, who was joined by her children, 12-year-old Sophie and 10-year-old Luke.

They were also accompanied by Kim's mother, Anne Chilton; her aunt, Pamela Chilton, who organised Wolverhampton's Race for Life; and Pamela's partner, Shaun.

Kim said: "As a family, we've run it pretty much every single year since it started, but it's the first time the kids have run it and they thought it was great.

"My mom had breast cancer 10 years ago and thankfully she's in remission now, but my great aunt currently has cancer.

"We're doing this for every single person who's affected or has been affected by cancer."

Yvonne Rebisz, a 64-year-old customer liaison officer from Coseley, walked the 5k along with her friend, Pam Williams.

"It went well, it was nice weather. Me and my friend only walked it because we've both had operations on our feet and I recently had a broken shoulder.

"It's the first time we've done it and the atmosphere was incredible."

Yvonne ran in memory of her father, Thomas Hubbard, who died of lung cancer in the 1980s, aged only 51.

"He was probably one of the first people to have chemotherapy," Yvonne said, "It was a horrible experience. Back then it was a big wooden box with 10 ginormous needles in it, not like how it is today with IV."

She added: "I'm running for him and for everyone who is suffering from this disease. The money goes towards research and the more money we raise means we have a better chance of annihilating it."