MORE than 500 Santas from Worcester and beyond who raced around the city's streets in last year's Christmas fun run raised £22,000 for Leukaemia CARE.

The fantastic sum beats the previous year's figure by £2,000. A further £7,000 was raised from Santas running in simultaneous 5km races in Evesham, Gloucester and Stevenage.

The best individual adult fund-raisers include Richard Lewis from Claines, who raised £525.50. His generous employers Excel offered to match his sponsorship pound for pound, raising his total to a tremendous £1,051.

Closely behind him is David Sargeant from St Peter's, Worcester, who raised a fantastic £617.74.

The highest sponsorship from an adult team came from Andrew's Tinsel Toppers, from estate agents Andrew Grant, who sent in £1,382.28 ,and the most money raised by a family was the Lippett family from Bromsgrove, who collected £128.50.

Leukaemia CARE's PR and marketing assistant Sarah Richards said: "We are absolutely delighted that our Worcester race has generated so much money for us, and there's still money coming in.

"Every penny that we raise helps us provide vital care and support to blood and lymphatic cancer patients, their families and carers and this event has given us a great start to the year.

"We'd like to thank all our runners for doing such a great job for us and, of course, to all their generous friends, family and colleagues who sponsored them to take part. It will take a lot to beat last year's success, but we'll try."

If you would like to see our gallery of photos from the Christmas Fun Run 2006, visit www.raise4leukaemia.org.uk and click on gallery'.