Click here to see photos from the 2018 Santa Fun Run

On Sunday 2 December, over 350 people from the local area descended on Banbury’s Wykham Park Academy dressed as Santa for the annual Santa Fun Run organised by Katharine House Hospice. It is hoped the event will raise up to £25,000 for Katharine House – enough to run the hospice’s Inpatient Unit for five days over Christmas, and ensure that local people and families facing life-limiting illness can get the support they need when they need it.

This was the ninth annual Santa Fun Run, which has raised over £140,000 for the Hospice since it began.

The Santas ran a route around the academy grounds cheered on by family, friends and volunteers from Katharine House. In addition, there were craft stalls, face painting, a teddy bear raffle and Santa even made an appearance in his Grotto, handing out special presents to the children.

Chris Higgins, Marketing and Communications Manager at the hospice, said; “The Santa Fun Run is always a fantastic family morning out, and the atmosphere on Sunday was brilliant. We were so pleased to see so many families coming together to raise money for their local hospice. On behalf of everyone at Katharine House, I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to take part.”

It costs more than £4.5 million to provide the hospice’s services every year, and three-quarters of that funding comes from local people and businesses, as well as trusts and foundations, so the money raised is vital to help keep the hospice running. Mr. Higgins said;

“Katharine House cares for about 250 people at any one time – whether that’s in our hospice, out in the community, or in the hospital. We’re so fortunate to have so many people who support us time and time again by joining events like the Santa Fun Run, running marathons, or holding cake sales, and the money raised from the Dash will go directly to helping people who are facing life-limiting illness in our community. We’d also like to say a big thank you to Hayfield Homes, our main sponsor this year who provided us with hand warmers and bottled water for our Santas and helped us reach more people in the community to make the day a huge success”.

A big thank you to Modern Parlance Photography for the photographs of this year's Santa Fun Run.