In a burst of colour and joy, 718 participants gathered at Taunton Racecourse for the St Margaret’s Hospice Colour Run, raising more than £38,000 on Saturday 18 May.
Families across Somerset rocked an array of colourful outfits, tutus, and fancy dress, with glitter face paint and bright accessories to take on St Margaret’s Colour Run challenge of running two laps around Taunton racecourse, getting covered in vibrant powdered paint, thanks to our army of paint throwing volunteers. Some of our younger participants even chose to tackle the course twice in honour of their loved ones.
Jon Witney, a regular colour run participant, who has seen firsthand the care St Margaret’s provides said, “An absolutely amazing day and so much fun! Even bigger and better than previous years. Thank you for everything you guys do, keep being amazing and helping people like us it’s so incredibly appreciated”.
This year also marked the debut of The Bubble Toddle, a delightful new addition to the Colour Run event with 110 of our littlest of fundraisers toddling to the 120m finish line, skipping through bubbles along the way!
The event village extended the festivities with inflatables, Formula 1 simulators, food, drinks, face painting, and stalls filled with goodies. The afternoon was capped off with a lively performance by the Somerset Red Arrow Majorettes.
Tributes were seen throughout the day as family and friends gathered to raise money and celebrate lives. Merle Harrison-Croft, Events Manager for St Margaret’s Hospice said, “It was a fantastic day. We’re delighted to have raised such an incredible amount of money for our hospice care. Sponsorship is still coming in but, the money we’ve raised so far could pay for 535 community nurses visits to patients in their own homes.”
Merle added, “We’d like to extend a massive thank you to our event sponsors Mogers Drewett, and paint station sponsors Amicus Law and Clarke Wilmot as well as Apple FM for keeping the party atmosphere alive all day. To have raised almost double the amount of last year is incredible – it would not have been possible without the support of local businesses and our incredible volunteers, as well as everyone who took part.”
If you missed out on this year’s Colour Run, don’t worry! You can scoop early bird tickets for 2025 already, click here.