Blackpool Santa Dash

Blackpool Gazette

As over 2,000 running Santas took over the prom, Shots! TV spoke to some who were taking part - including the family of Mabel Gregson, a little girl with a rare illness who is the face of this years' campaign for Brian House Childrens' Hospice.  Watch more of the quirky and inventive ways Brits have been getting in the festive spirit in the Unconventional Brits Christmas Special https://www.shotstv.com/watch/vod/52721394/unconventional-brits-episode-20-christmas-special

Transcript

00:00It's nice, I catch the tram down, and half the tram's dressed up as Santa, so it kind

00:11of brings, it all starts to, yeah, come together and make for a great morning.

00:16My wife passed away just over seven years ago.

00:20She was an auxiliary nurse at the hospice, and I got a lot of support from the hospice

00:24afterwards.

00:25So, yeah, it's a cause very dear to my heart, and I'll support it whichever way I can.

00:33So this is just one of the many ways of doing it and enjoying it, and it's the start of

00:39the Christmas spirit, really, 1st of December.

00:43Two thousand runners doing for two thousand different reasons.

00:47Afterwards, I'm going to go with my granddaughter to buy our Christmas tree, that's like our

00:52tradition as well.

00:53We've never done it before, we've always known about it, but then we thought this year, because

00:57obviously Mabel is the face of this year's Santa Dash, we thought we'd better come and

01:00give it a go, and I think we'll do it for every year coming, because it's just amazing.

01:05Mabel's got Matting's disease, we found out last year, which is a, basically it's like

01:11childhood dementia, it's a life-limiting illness, where children tend to lose, well, they lose

01:17all the skills, it's very progressive, so it's just a horrible, horrible disease.

01:23Bryan House has made such a huge difference.

01:25I think the word hospice comes with so many connotations, it being a place where people

01:29go to pass away, and it's not that at all, it's actually a place where the children go

01:34to live, and some of the stuff that they do with them is just incredible, you know, they

01:39bring them to the sandcastle, to the zoo, she's stayed over at Bryan House, and she

01:44just, you know, her face lights up when she goes in, they just love her, it's just a brilliant,

01:49brilliant place.

01:50We've got a group of kids here today, obviously for our football club, TM Sports, so we do

01:55it every year, so we're just trying to raise money and help out as best we can.

01:58We've got like 30 of us down today, which is, like I say, 10 more than we had last year,

02:03so trying to build it up slowly, and try and get everybody down from the whole club.

02:08We were last year a bit competitive, we had quite a few that wanted to, like I say, try

02:11and beat each other, but this year I think we've gone collectively, just to walk around

02:14and start as a group and finish as a group.

02:17As you get nearer to the front, like I said, the music gets the kids going, parents all

02:20dive in and jump in as well, and we're going to sing a song, a bit of a dance before we

02:24set off, it's all good.

02:25We are officially opening Christmas with our annual Blackpool Santa Dash, the Santa Dash

02:31event is participating from the Sandcastle Waterpark, as you can see behind me, there

02:36are hundreds of Santas ready to start their race, so there's 1,600 in total, raising over

02:44£38,000 for Bryan House Children's Hospice, so all of those funds really make a difference

02:50for the children within the hospice, for various different activities, sponsored for nurses,

02:56for care, in all different aspects of the hospice.

02:59So they'll be setting off at 11 o'clock, heading down to the Manchester pub, and then return

03:04in for a very well-deserved hot chocolate and medal.

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