Three thousand women were blessed with glorious sunshine for the first ever Race For Life in Walsall.

Yesterday’s event at the Arboretum raised around £173,000 for Cancer Research UK.

Women dressed in pink tutus, bunny ears and cowboy hats ran or walked a 5km course in honour of lost loved ones and to raise money for a good cause.

Cleaner Claire Clorley, aged 34, of the Yew Tree estate in Walsall, was running the event in memory of her father-in-law who died of cancer in 2005. She raised a total of £100.

“It was really good day,” she said. “I have done the race twice before when it was at Sandwell Valley but this was probably the best weather I’ve done it in. There was a brilliant atmosphere.”

Organiser Katherine Culshaw said the fastest runners did the course in just under 24 minutes. She said the first-ever event in Walsall had gone extremely well and would repeated in the years to come.

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