More than 100 runners put their best foot forward to help raise more than £3,000 for charity in the Millport Ten Miler Fun Run.

Serious runners and walkers flocked to the island on Sunday May 14 for the annual event, which raises money for Parkinson’s Scotland and Dementia UK in memory of local man Michael Righetti.

Tens of thousands has been raised since the event started several years ago, and it forms part of a busy weekend on the island with the Millport Classic Car Show and crowning of the Cumbrae Queen.

Organiser Marina Dobbin, who is Michael’s sister, believes this year’s run was another huge success, despite some poor weather across the weekend.

She said: “It all went fantastically, with around 135 runners and walkers taking part and £3,009 raised for the two charities.

“The numbers were slightly down on last year but I think the weather on the Saturday made people think twice about coming over.

“Around 80 per cent of those taking part were runners and the rest walkers, with the fastest times of one hour and eight minutes for the men and one hour and seventeen minutes for the women.

“One group of Millport ladies took almost five hours to complete the course, although we think they stopped off for a coffee along the way.

“They have been well warned for next year as we needed to wait for every single person to cross the line to get their medal.”

Marina has hailed the Cumbrae community for all their support, with donations from local businesses and individuals adding to the success of the event.

She said: “We are grateful for all the donations and baking which we received including a generous donation of £80 from the Tropics team at Marina’s.

“Without a lot of help we couldn’t stage this event, so I want to say a massive shout-out to our support crew.

“Thank you to the Premier store for the generous donation of bananas, cakes, water and the use of the vans.”

Marina wants to make the event even bigger and better next year, and says the distance could be extended in years to come.

She added: “We’d love to make it bigger but we need to spread the word and get more running clubs interested in taking part.

“We lost a lot of interest because of the pandemic, and a lot of people haven’t realised we have put the ten miler back on again.

“Runners use us as a good training exercise for bigger races like marathons during the summer, because the island is so flat.

“There is always the possibility of increasing the maximum distance, and maybe even creating a half marathon route for anyone who wants that.”

To keep up to date with details for next year’s event, go to the Millport Ten Miler Fun Run Facebook page.