Five-year-old Lincoln from St Helens – will be the guest of honour at the milestone 20th staging of the Santa Dash. BTR Liverpool arranged a special visit to a fire station in the lead up to the event to give the youngster another memorable experience.
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00:00 Five-year-old Lincoln from St. Helens will be the guest of honour at the
00:04 milestone 20th staging of the Santa Dash. BTR Liverpool arranged a special visit
00:11 to a fire station in the lead-up to the event to give the youngster another
00:15 memorable experience. "It's an absolute privilege to welcome Lincoln from our
00:19 St. Helens community to actually come to the station and spend the day of our
00:23 firefighters and experience what it's like to actually ride in the fire
00:26 planes and also to welcome Alder Hey here." Lincoln's undergone open heart
00:32 surgeries at Alder Hey Children's Hospital. His positivity has made him
00:37 shine and he's been chosen to represent the charity at this year's race. "It's
00:43 been a roller coaster, really has." "He's a little chipper though isn't he?" "He is, he's really strong.
00:48 Yeah, he makes it easier with his personality and stuff. He does make
00:53 things easier even when he's not well he still manages to smart and push through
00:57 things so he's just a strong little boy. He really is." "Alder Hey are the official
01:02 charity of the year once again for the Santa Dash. Probably one of my favourite
01:06 events of the year. It gets us all in the festive spirit seeing the six, six and a
01:10 half thousand Santas running through the streets of Liverpool. All of the money
01:13 raised go to such an important cause in the hospital. We fund so many different
01:17 projects from life-saving medical equipment to our park campus, research
01:22 innovation and my favourite, magic, which is all of the distraction techniques
01:26 that we've got going on in the hospital just to make hospital life that bit much
01:30 easier for patients like Lincoln. No one wants to go to hospital, I don't want to
01:35 go to hospital, so if we can make it a little bit more comfortable for our
01:39 little ones then absolutely." Mayside Fire and Rescue Service have taken part in the
01:43 Santa Dash for more than 15 years. "Yeah, Mayside Fire Service have been part of the
01:49 Santa Dash since 2006. Actually this year we've got over a hundred
01:52 firefighters, fire control operators and our civilian staff up to the chief fire
01:57 officer because at Mayside we are one team so it's really encouraging to see
02:01 everyone taking part in this year's Santa Dash." The very first Liverpool Santa Dash
02:05 took place in 2004 and is now thought to be the UK's biggest festive 5k fun run.
02:13 "I'd say the health and well-being of firefighters and our civilian staff is so
02:17 important so encouraging them to take part in healthy activities and getting
02:22 out to build and then part of the team is absolutely a fantastic opportunity."
02:27 The festive spectacular takes place on Sunday 3rd of December starting at 9.30am
02:32 at the Pier Head. The iconic world-famous waterfront will be transformed into a
02:38 sea of thousands of red, blue and mini Santas as 6,000 are expected to take
02:45 part in the annual event. Finally a quick note on fire safety. "So important any
02:50 time of the year but as we move into the festive period that you check your smoke
02:54 alarms to make sure they are working properly. If you're unsure or you haven't
02:58 got any smoke alarms please phone 0800 731 5958."