FOUR school friends who have already raised more than £1,200 in sponsorship for Race for Life put a cherry on top of their fundraising by hosting a breaktime cake sale.

The Puppy Crew – Georgia Knowlden and Emily Poyser, both eight, and Rose Poyser and Anoushka Nairac, both 10 – are taking part in their first Race for Life at the University Parks, Oxford, on Sunday and collected some last-minute donations by selling a range of delicious treats yesterday.

The girls decided to enter the 5k Cancer Research UK fundraiser in March because Georgia’s mother is undergoing her second course of chemotherapy for fallopian cancer.

The Oxford High Junior School pupils, who nicknamed themselves The Puppy Crew because they all love dogs, set themselves an initial target of £150 in sponsorship. But they were amazed when this quickly climbed to the £1,000 mark.

Emily, from Witney, said: “All our families have been affected by cancer and we really wanted to do something to help, so we thought we would enter Race for Life and just raise as much as we could.

“But we never realised it would be so much.

“Everyone has been so generous and our total is already £1,260.”

Her sister Rose added: “We are going to all dye our hair pink and skip, hop and walk the race.

“But before that we decided to have a cake sale at school and we have baked hundreds of cakes, brownies and flapjacks to sell to our friends to raise even more money.”

Anoushka, from Combe near Witney, said: “We have practised for Race for Life by taking part in the Jericho 1k race, which was fun.”

Georgia, from Botley, whose mother is being treated for cancer at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford, said: “I feel determined to raise as much money as possible and it feels good to be doing something for cancer research.”

Race for Life attracted 5863 competitors last year, raising £341,003.

This year, Cancer Research UK hopes 6,100 women will raise £350,000 for its continuing work on new treatments and an eventual cure for cancer.

Simon Burley, event manager for Race for Life in the South East, said: “Over £1,200 is a fabulous amount to raise, every penny of which will go towards life-saving research.”

Registration for Race for Life closes at midnight tonight, and there are no entries on the day.

  • To sign up for the race, go to raceforlife.cancer researchuk.org/
  • To sponsor The Puppy Crew, go to raceforlife sponsorme.org/ puppy-crew