A Santa Dash fundraising extravaganza is set to take place in Millom and Kendal this Christmas.
The Santa Dash is one of charity CancerCare’s flagship events which usually sees hundreds of people dressed as Father Christmas enjoy a fun run around Lancaster city centre as part of the Christmas light switch-on festivities.
Last year, the event moved online due to the coronavirus pandemic but the easing of restrictions means the charity can one again run mass participation events to help bring in the money it needs to provide counselling and therapy for local people affected by cancer and bereavement.
This year, it will also take place in Millom and Kendal.
This year’s Santa Dash will take place on the following dates:
- Sunday 28 November at 11am – Kendal Leisure Centre. One mile fun run
- Sunday 5 December at 11am – Millom Community Track. One mile fun run
Organiser of the Millom event Heidi Bowron said that as soon as it was confirmed the charity could organise face-to-face physical events once again, they were determined to make the Santa Dash bigger and better than ever.
Heidi said: “The Santa Dash is one of our favourite events because, as well as raising thousands of pounds, the sight of so many people running around, having fun dressed as Father Christmas does a fantastic job raising awareness about the work we do.
“This year we will be doing it across all of the areas we serve and it will be wonderful to see everyone out with their families having fun. I am particularly excited about the run in Millom as we have never done one in the town before but the support from local people has been amazing and we have sold lots of tickets already.”
The Millom event will be a short family fun run around the Community Track with a variety of entertainment including live DJ. The Kendal Santa Dash will feature a family run along the canal path beginning and ending at Kendal Leisure Centre.
Taking part will be the Cairns family from Millom. Mum Abbey said: “We love doing things as a family at Christmas and were excited to see the Santa Dash taking place right on our doorstep. We are looking forward to taking part with all the other Santas, having loads of fun and raising money for a fantastic local charity which does wonderful work helping so many local people.
Last year’s Virtual Santa Dash raised more than £14,000 for the charity and this year it is hoping to do even better.
CancerCare chief executive Alison Stainthorpe said: “This will be the first ever Santa Dash in Millom and the first one in Kendal for a number of years. We provide support for a number of clients from Millom at our Barrow Centre and we are hoping the event will help spread the word about what we do to even more people in the town.
“It costs us around £142,000 a month to operate our centres and we rely on public donations for the vast majority of the money we need to keep going. The community has always really got behind Santa Dash, and I’m sure they will again this year.”
The overall sponsor of the event is FGH Security. The Millom Santa Dash is also being sponsored by Forth Engineering and Ian Hudson & Co Ltd.
To find out more visit cancercare.org.uk/news-and-events/santa-dash-on-tour-2021
