Race for Life axed at Showground as numbers plunge

The plug has been pulled on the race which helps to raise around £100,000 every year.

The event has been held at the showground in Stafford for the past fours years by Cancer Research UK.

Charity spokeswoman Lucy Morton said the showground event had been replaced by a 10K Pretty Muddy event – featuring obstacles and mud – at Weston Park near Wolverhampton.

It is the only 10K Pretty Muddy event taking place in the entire country.

She said: "We have taken the county showground off this year and replaced it with Weston Park instead.

"Numbers have been declining and there have been increased costs.

"Introducing the Pretty Muddy event at Weston Park will give the event a new lease of life."

Last year around 2,000 women donned colourful outfits and took part in the run at the showground off Weston Road.

Race for Life is a women-only series of 5k, 10k and Pretty Muddy events which raises millions of pounds every year to help beat 200 different types of cancer.

Race for Life events will take place at 16 venues across the West Midlands region this year including Wolverhampton on June 10 and at Walsall Arboretum on May 17.

With a week to go before last July's Race for Life there were still 400 spaces left at the County Showground venue and an appeal was issued for more women to take part.

But the picture was similar at other venues in the region. The month before, organisers had urged runners to sign up to ensure events at Himley Hall in Dudley and West Park, Wolverhampton, were full.

In 2013, both Dudley and Wolverhampton Race for Life events hit their participation targets but Stafford fell just shy. In the same year, 2,338 women took part in Race for Life in Walsall raising more than £132,000.