THERE were 1,300 people taking part in Longfield’s Bubble Rush but the charity organisers made sure there was enough coloured foam to cover them all.

Canons pumped out white, red, blue, yellow and green bubbles as people ran, walked and danced their way around the 5km course at Cirencester’s Royal Agricultural University.

Among them were three generations of Malmesbury women – Amy Pottinger, 28, her mum Rachel Pottinger, 50, and her grandmother Hilary Smart, 73. They were taking on the challenge with Amy’s boyfriend’s nan Nancy Cowley, 68, and Amy Orchard, 27, both from Cirencester.

“Nancy supports this charity and she put something on Facebook about it – I said ‘I will if you will’ so here we are,” Rachel said.

Nancy – who was sporting a flower garland and fluffy pink tiara – said her sister-in-law attended therapy sessions at Longfield before she died in 2009 and her cousin received hospice at home care before she died in 2013.

“It’s just marvellous what they do there and everyone’s so friendly. It’s a lovely place and we wanted to make some money for them so I roped everyone in for this.”

First over the finish line in the first run was two-times county champion sprinter Luca Hawkins, 15, from Fairford, followed by Finley Bridgeman, 15, from Cirencester, both pupils at Farmor’s School, Fairford.

Luca’s dad and his gran have both battled cancer. “I wanted to do this to support them,” he said. “It was really fun but it was quite unnerving to run into a wall of foam - you feel like you’re floating through it.”

Finley’s aunt has cancer. “There’s no treatment for her now and it’s only a matter of time so I wanted to do one more thing for her,” he said. “It was an amazing experience.”

Gloucestershire’s first ever Bubble Rush raised money exclusively for Longfield which provides free support to more than 900 people with life limiting illnesses across Gloucestershire every year.

The charity, which is the largest hospice at home provider in the county, hopes the Bubble Rush will raise £20,000.

“It has been an absolutely amazing day with over a thousand people all raising money for Longfield,” said Andrew Fletcher, Chief Executive of Longfield. “Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone who has taken part.”