A university student from Salford will be joining some of the world's fastest elite athletes, a whole host of celebrities and thousands of fun runners on Sunday 16th May for this year's Bupa Great Manchester Run.

Heather Knowles, 22, will be running to raise funds for the Salford Advertiser's £250,000 appeal towards the new Christie radiotherapy centre currently under construction at Salford Royal.

Heather wanted to fundraise for The Christie after seeing her dad overcome bowel cancer.

She said; "He was diagnosed with cancer in Christmas 2008, so that was a particularly hard time for me, my mum and my younger sister. Luckily though, because they got it early, by half way through 2009 he was in remission.

"We're a really close knit family. After dad's diagnosis everyone rallied round in support, so doing this run is the perfect opportunity for me to say thank you and raise money for such a good cause at the same time.

"Our family's originally from Didsbury, so I've known all my life what an outstanding reputation The Christie has. It's brilliant that this outstanding care is spreading to other areas and I'm proud that I can do my bit in making that happen."

As well as treating patients for the most common cancers like breast, bowel and lung, the centre in Salford will also be a national centre of excellence for treating brain conditions. It will be equipped to deliver stereotactic radiosurgery, a highly specialised neurosurgical technique for brain cancers - making it one of only a handful of such centres in the UK. Currently patients from Greater Manchester have to travel to Sheffield for this treatment.

Heather added; "I'm really looking forward to the run now, and I'm managing to do around 8k relatively well, so that extra 2k shouldn't be too difficult!

"I'll be so proud to wear my Christie t-shirt."

The event, which was first staged in 2003, is one of the largest and most prestigious mass participation runs in the UK, with 36,000 runners this year.

Household names who will be running with Heather in aid of The Christie, including stand-up comedian and TV presenter Paddy McGuinness, Coronation Street stars Jane Danson, Samia Smith and Katy Cavanagh and New Order's Peter Hook.

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