Race for Life

Did You Know?

• The Equal Opportunities Commission wrote to Cancer Research UK after John Taylor's complaint.
• Run for Moore was a separate 5 km event that supported only bowel cancer research.

History

The idea for Race for Life came from Jim Cowan, who was then hired by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund to organize and direct the first event. That race took place in 1994 in Battersea Park, London, with 750 participants raising £48,000. The next year, it grew to six venues, 4,500 participants, and £210,000 raised. By 2006, it had become one of the UK’s biggest fundraisers, with 240 races, 750,000 participants, and £46,000,000 raised.

Since 1994, 6,000,000 people across the UK have raised over £493,000,000 for the charity. Notable participants include Jane Tomlinson, whose first fundraiser was a Race for Life in 2001 after being diagnosed with terminal breast cancer; she went on to raise over £1,750,000 before her death in 2007. In 2009, actresses Laila Morse and Lynda Bellingham became ambassadors in memory of Wendy Richard and Jade Goody. The rules changed in 2012 to allow boys up to age 12, following a campaign by Claire Parke.

In 2019, Cancer Research UK opened the event to everyone, regardless of age or gender. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the 2020 events to be postponed until 2021, so a virtual version called Race for Life at Home was created instead.