Stamford Santa Fun Run donates £15,000 to Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice and £4,600 to MindSpace Stamford

Participants in the Stamford Santa Fun Run helped to raise more than £23,000 for charity, which was donated this week.

The 5km event at Burghley Park in December generated £15,000 for Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice and a further £4,600 for MindSpace Stamford.

The Rotary Club of Stamford Burghley also received £3,500, which it will use to support local good causes - including Evergreen Care Trust and Bluecoat Primary School in Green Lane, Stamford - as well as its international work.

Robin Ball, chairman of Stamford Striders, hosted a presentation on behalf of the running club and Rotarians, who worked together to organise the event and attract sponsors.

“All 1,500 places were sold well ahead of the fun run and what an amazing and emotional day it was,” Robin said.

“Seeing plenty of smiling, laughing Santas stretching all the way around Burghley Park, I must not have been the only one who with a tear in their eye.”

Event sponsors included Cummins, Perkins, Upp and the Five Horseshoes pub in Barholm, helping to ensure more of the funds raised could be shared charitably.

Thanking everyone involved, Joely Garner, community fundraising manager at the Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice in Peterborough, said the donation meant all the more after the pandemic, which has severely limited fundraising.

She read a moving letter that arrived this week from a patient’s family, which thanked staff for the time they had spent listening and talking with him, recognising him as “a whole and amazing person”. It concluded: “You made sure he had a nice ending to his life. He felt like a lucky man. He was at peace.”

Mary Dowglass, a MindSpace Stamford trustee who has been with the mental health charity since it began its drop-in sessions five years ago, said their donation was extremely important now the charity is leasing permanent premises in Broad Street, where it provides support and activities for the community.

“I was at the Stamford Santa Fun Run,” said Mary. “It was a fantastic community event that can only go from strength to strength.”

Stamford Santa Fun Run will take place again in December, with sponsors already signing up to be involved in the event. To become a sponsor email santafunrunadmin@stamfordstriders.org