About 40,000 people have taken to the streets for this year's Great Manchester Run.

Huge crowds watched as elite athletes lined up alongside fun runners for either the 10km (6.1 miles) race or the longer half-marathon course.

Among those taking part were Race Across the World participants, who raced in memory of former contestant Sam Gardiner, who died in a crash near Manchester a year ago.

Sam's mum, Jo Gardiner, said it was a "very moving" day and she had "already cried twice".

She told BBC North West Tonight "the fact that they are doing this is fantastic".

"We are this lovely dysfunctional family and every year we add the next series to the WhatsApp group and it's lovely to meet some of them properly [today]," Jo added.

She said Sam's best friend was also running.

Event founder and former British long distance runner Sir Brendan Foster said the people taking part and the city itself made the event what it was, and, at its heart, it was all about "ordinary people doing extraordinary things".

He said that since it began in 2003 it "grew and grew and grew and now we are up to the biggest ever - 40,000 and we are absolutely delighted".

"We organise the event but it's the people of Manchester and Greater Manchester who populate the event and also the atmosphere comes from them - it doesn't come from us," he added.

"You'll feel today the humour, the relaxation and the effort and the consistency and you also see ordinary people doing extraordinary things and raising loads of money for charity but helping each other on the way and keeping fit themselves."

Some of the pairs from the current sixth series of Race Across the World ran in Sam's memory, including siblings Katie and Harrison along with Liverpudlian friends Jo and Kush.

The 24-year-old died on 26 May 2025 and his fellow participants were marking a year since his death and raising funds for charity.

"I think it's really important to honour Sam and we've got Jo, his mum with us today, and it's really lovely that we can all get together to support her, with it being a year on," said Katie.

She said it was also important for them to be doing the 10k to raise money for The Christie Charity as "everyone knows somebody who has been affected by cancer".

Thousands of spectators lined the streets to support the runners and double Olympic champion Dame Kelly Holmes returned to the starter's platform for the elite women's race.

Rugby league star and fundraiser for motor neurone disease (MND) Kevin Sinfield, and actor, writer, producer and Alzheimer's Society ambassador Sally Lindsay MBE were also set to race.

Catherine Makinson, from Cannock, Staffordshire, ran the 10k to raise funds for the Alzheimer's Society in memory of her mum, who was from Manchester, and had lived with disease for three years before her death last year.

Catherine, who was running the 10k for the eighth time, said the charity was hugely important.

"We want a cure because it could be my future," she added.

Joanna Beswick and Dennis Moran, both teachers at the Manchester Hospital School, were running the 10k to raise money for a therapy room at The Leo Kelly School for secondary age pupils referred by a medical practitioner.

They were also raising funds for the Manchester Foundation Trust.

Dennis said: "We know, working within the school and within the hospital, the impact days like this have because it makes such a big big difference."

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cze2z0e887no?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss