Bolt 10k to raise £20,000 (From Witney Gazette)

Bolt 10k to raise £20,000

9:00am Wednesday 20th September 2006 in Witney

THE Blenheim Bolt 10k run at the weekend is on course to raise £20,000 for the British Heart Foundation.

About 750 runners, joggers, and walkers took on the challenging course at Blenheim Palace, in Woodstock, on Sunday.

The number was up on last year, and now organisers are urging people to collect their sponsorship money.

Events organiser, Louise McCathie, said it was too early to say exactly where the money would be used, whether it would be used to fund research, nurses, or equipment - but it will be spent locally. And she echoed comments made by Oxford author Colin Dexter, pictured, who sounded the klaxon at the start of the race, about the need for people to collect their sponsorship money.

She said: "Collecting the money is half the challenge - as well as taking part in the actual event, people then have to find the people who had pledged them money."

"Its best to do it now while the enthusiasm is still there and before people start to forget."

The winning time of Sunday's race was around 35 minutes, the slowest time was two hours 20 minutes.

Organisers are delighted with the success of the event and said it would return next year.

The BHF already funds a cardiac liaison nurse at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, and money raised at the 2005 Blenheim Bolt helped pay for a paediatric transoesophageal probe, which takes pictures of the heart to show its structure and how it is working.