Liverpool Santa dash

Liverpool is gearing up for one of the biggest festive fun runs in the UK. This year's Santadash is promising to be bigger and better than ever before. Around 8000 santas will be taking to the streets of the city to take part in the annual five kilometre dash to raise money for charity.

This will be the eighth time the city has hosted a Santadash - Olympic champion Beth Tweddle will officially start the race from the Pier Head as thousands of people dressed as Santa will gather to unite for charities across the UK. This year Liverpool Santa Dash has partnered with Text Santa, an annual fundraiser which is supporting six UK based charities- Age UK, Anthony Nolan, Carers UK, Marie Curie Cancer Care, Together for Short Lives and Whizz-kidz.

Also taking part are newly reformed Atomic Kitten members Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton.

Liz said, "I'm delighted to be taking part in the Santa Dash this year, its a fantastic event and I'm really proud to be a part of it. Liverpool has a reputation for its fun personality and this is an example of just that, we'll have a warm welcome to visitors coming from all over the country to take part and the atmosphere at the dash will be great.

Natasha continued, "The Santa Dash is a real family fun event which is great for kids and adults to enjoy. It's fantastic the event is support ing the Text Santa Appeal where six charities will benefit from fundraising that will make a real difference to many people at Christmas time.'

Coronation Street's Kym Lomas launched the Santa dash with ITV Text Santa on the 15th October and said:

"I jumped at the chance of being involved with Text Santa and the Santa Dash. Its fun and a great way of getting people of all ages involved and raising money for many charities. It will draw people from all over the UK. It's really important that we don't forget that some people have a really hard time over the Christmas period.

The race starts at 0930 and will finish outside Liverpool 's Town Hall.