On Friday night we held our annual Children’s Cancer Run presentation night. It’s a chance for the organisers to thank all of the wonderful people that make the Run as successful as it is each year.

We invite children from the schools that take part, to come along and see some of the best photos from the day and they’re awarded with a certificate and trophy for raising so much money for the charity.

This year’s presentation was particularly special as we were able to announce a HUGE fund raising total thanks to an anonymous donation of £100,000 to the North of England Children’s Cancer Research fund (NECCR).

A cheque for a total of £265,406 was presented to the NECCR chair, David Wood at the Sir James Spence Institute at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle – the single donation from the generous benefactor, who wishes to remain unnamed, was combined with the total sum raised by those who took part in this year’s Run.

Of course, Mr Wood was delighted with donation, he said “The NECCR fund was set up to ensure that funds were raised to support research into children’s cancer, every year since we set up the fund people have done all sorts of weird and wonderful things to raise money for our cause. On behalf of the NECCR committee I want to sincerely thank our anonymous benefactor for their enormous generosity.”

“It was certainly a great surprise and tremendous boost to our funds to receive such a large donation, and the fact that it was anonymous says a great deal about the donor. Our research team in Newcastle is at the forefront of developments and donations like this mean this cutting edge research can be extended.”

Professor Josef Vormoor, The Sir James Spence Chair of Child Health at the RVI gave a particularly poignant speech, explaining after a week at work that was filled with both good news, and not so good news for parents on the children’s cancer ward, it was clearer now more than ever that we need to continue to raise as much money as possible to fund research into children’s cancer.

He said “In Britain approximately one in 500 children and young people will develop cancer; that’s two people from the North east every week. This is an astonishing figure that demonstrates how urgently our research is needed. Over the time that the run has been helping to fund our research survival rates have increased dramatically, but cancer remains the biggest cause of child death and we need to keep working hard to change this.”

“Donations such as this offer an enormous boost to the research facility in terms of financial relief but also as a lift to morale amongst the researchers and clinical teams.”

The organisers of Europe’s biggest fun run were also overjoyed after raising nearly £200,000 for NECCR through the efforts of runners and their sponsors.

The 2013 Children’s Cancer Run took place in May this year and thousands of participants took part in a five-mile cross country run to raise money in support of the charity which dedicates its resources to researching children’s cancers and developing treatments for young sufferers of the disease.

The run, which is sponsored by Greggs, took place at Gosforth Park in Newcastle with over 9,000 runners made up school children, families and fun runners from across the region, who braved a very water-logged course to raise funds for NECCR.

Chairman of the Run, Chris Peacock commented “Tonight is about saying a big thank you to all of the people who have organised, volunteered, run and sponsored this amazing event – making The Children’s Cancer Run one of the largest single charity fun runs in the world and certainly the biggest in Europe.”

“I am continually amazed that after so many years we have such a dynamic organisation. We have a brilliant committee that work entirely for free. They ask for nothing in return and many have been with us for over 30 years.”

“Each brings their own skill and experience and they enlist over 250 volunteers for the day who also help for free. Greggs provide picnics and sponsorship of medals and equipment so we have no overheads. 10,000 runners and 4000 spectators fill Gosforth Park to raise money for the NECCR fund.”

“It means that every single penny raised goes directly to into research for children’s cancer – something everyone involved should be incredibly proud of.  This event is a true testament to community spirit of the northeast and we’re pleased to announce the date for next years run on Sunday 11th May 2014 and we look forward to seeing everyone there again.”