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Marlow was awash with a sea of Santas on Sunday as one of the town's biggest festive events made its triumphant return for the 12th year. 

Olympic hero, Sir Steve Redgrave, and Paralympic rower, Naomi Riches, were on hand to kick start the annual Santa Fun Run in Higginson Park on a frosty December 4 morning. 

More than 2,000 runners donned their Father Christmas gear to take on the 5k route through the town centre in aid of charity - including Sir Steve and Naomi themselves.

The first male across the finish line was Stephen Francis - who took on the race as part of a charity challenge for Sue Ryder, called December Daily Dash, to run three miles a day throughout the month - with a time of 18 minutes and 56 seconds. 

The Maidenhead resident said: “This is the fourth run out of 31, we are doing a 5k race every day to raise money for Sue Ryder and there are about 60 other people involved.

“There are about ten of us here today. I'm exhausted after the race but I've still got 27 more to go. Yesterday I did the Black Park parkrun and tomorrow I will be jogging very slowly around Maidenhead. Wherever we are that day we will run.

“When you do it every single day you can’t really push yourself too hard. I wasn’t expecting to win because it’s a fun run really not a real race, but I knew I was likely to be in the top ten. I’m very pleased to win. I've got a nice trophy.”

He was closely followed by George Tipping with a time of 19 minutes and 33 seconds, with Ollie Roberts crossing the line in 19 minutes and 40 seconds.

The first female across the line was Hannah Sharp, with a time of 20 minutes and 48 seconds.

She was followed by Abbie Jones who crossed the line in 22 minutes and 21 seconds, then Kate Sophoclides who finished in 23 minutes and 40 seconds.

Marlow deputy mayor, Jocelyn Towns, also took part in the race for the third year, finishing in 39 minutes, as did town and district councillor, Suzanne Brown, who took on the challenge for the tenth year, but could not run due to a bad knee.

The lead charity for the fun run this year is Christmas for Kids, which delivers pantomimes to children’s hospices up and down the country.

Lance Slater, from the Rotary Club of Marlow, presented the charity with a cheque at the end of the event.

He said: “The whole event is for people to enjoy themselves and to raise money which it gives out to very good charities, large and small. The Rotary Clubs of Marlow are delighted to be able to offer Christmas for Kids a cheque for £7,500 and we can only do that because the people of Marlow so enjoy Santa’s Fun Run and turn up and take part.”

The donation will help fund half of the charity’s tour over the next year.