Riversway Road Runners raise thousands to support pregnant women with cancer through Mummy's Star charity

Members of Riversway Road Runners ran 12 park runs in one day for Mummys Star, which looks after women and their families impacted by cancer during pregnancy and shortly after birth.

A team of 20 from Riversway Road Runners ran 38 miles and drove 200 miles for Mummy’s Star, where Ben’s wife Louise Harlow, is the engagement and fund-raising coordinator.

As some members had run with Ben, who died of bowel cancer in July 2017, aged 38, they wanted to support the charity, which looks after women affected by cancer during pregnancy and afterbirth.

The team ran the routes of 12 park runs across the North West, starting at St Helens and finishing at Preston, taking on courses in Wigan, Warrington, Salford and Cheshire.

Read the original story: Here is how you can join Riversway Road Runners in raising money for Mummy's Star to help pregnant women through cancer

Organiser Marc Potter said: “All park runs start at 9am, so we only did one official run at Phoenix Park, Runcorn. The rest of the time we met people from the running clubs and followed their routes.“The support we had form the running community was amazing. In Wepres, North Wales, there was 30 or 40 people there with musical instruments; Ellesmere Port’s running club gave us bags with water and sweets and members at Delamere baked us cakes.

“We had some people meet us at one run and follow us for some others.“Some of the runs were quite rural so we found it hard to park the minibus and ended up finishing later. We didn’t even have time to stop for lunch, as we had to get on the minibus to drive to the next runs.

“It was very tiring but when we got to Preston there must have been around 100 people there - all our family and friends - and we had pizza and beer. Members of Mummy’s Star were also there.“We were blown away with the amount of support we got.”

Members have so far raised £4,500 but expect that to increase to £6,500.The club is also continuing its support for the rest of the year, with some runners completing the Great North Run and a team of nine will take part in the Moscow Marathon on September 22.

Marc added: “All donations are welcomed and appreciated.”

To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/campaign/rrr-supportmummysstar.