Stafford a sea of pink for Race for Life

While the storm clouds gathered, the rain largely held off for last night's event to raise money for Cancer Research, with just a few spotless at the start of the 3.2-mile run.

Starting the race was seven-year-old cancer sufferer Daisy May Trainor, and organisers are hoping this year's race will raise £100,000 to help fight all types of cancer.

Amelia Gunn-Russell, who is recovering from breast cancer, was taking part with a group of around 20 friends, including work colleague Lynne Newell who had also been treated for breast cancer.

The 46-year-old play worker on the children's ward at Stafford Hospital, said she had really enjoyed the race.

"It's been great fun, we only walked most of it," said Amelia, who lives in Aldershaws Lane, High Offley.

"We broke out into a bit of a sprint at the end, we walked then ran, walked then ran. But it's all about having your friends around you for it."

Amelia, whose husband Duncan was dressed in a pink tutu to support her during the race, was diagnosed with breast cancer in February this year.

Since then she has had a double mastectomy and is now nine weeks into a programme of chemotherapy.

"I have good weeks and I have bad weeks, but this week I'm having a good week," she says. "It hasn't held me back at all.

"Three of us on the children's ward had cancer scares this year, although mine was the most serious.

"My friend Lynne Newell, one of the senior nurses on the ward, also had surgery, and a group of us got together and thought we would do the Race For Life."

Amelia was supported by her husband Duncan - who wore a pink tutu - and her children Megan, aged 11 and Angus, eight. She does not yet know how much money the group has raised from the run, but in May this year Amelia raised £1,400 for 1st Edgmond Scouts in Shropshire by having her head shaved. The money will go towards at trip to Menin Gate in the key First World War battlefield of Ypres in Belgium on August 4, to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the conflict.

Michelle Lindley, a 39-year-old dental receptionist from Saredon Road, Great Saredon, ran the race with her eight-year-old daughter Bobbi, Bobbi's friend Phoebe Cartwright, as well as a group of other mothers from Cheslyn Hay Primary School where Bobbi is a pupil.

"It was lovely," she said. "The children really enjoyed it, it gave them such a buzz. They were better at it than we were, the grown ups."

Michelle, who works at Cannock Dental Practice in Wolverhampton Road, had previously taken part in the Race For Life at Telford. She said this year's race was in memory of her grandmother Geneva Jackson who died from lung cancer in January last year(2013) at the age of 94.

Also taking part was 29-year-old nursery nurse Lucy Biggs.

"I have done it twice before, I have lost a couple of family members to cancer so I just wanted to raise some money," she said.

"I ran the race with two friends from work. I did it in around 32 minutes, which I was pleased with, we ran most of the course."

The Stafford Race For Life follows similar events in Wolverhampton, Dudley and Walsall.