A swarm of Santas made their merry way round a park in King's Lynn on this morning to raise money for charity.

The fun run saw 70 people don the famous red and white suit for the Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House and a campaign which aims to help give people greater choice on where they want to die.

The 1.5km and 5km fun runs started and finished close to King's Lynn Town FC's ground in The Walks and so far �1,000 has been raised for the charity's Seahorse Appeal, which is being backed by the EDP,

First across the finish line for the 5km run was Wisbech resident Charlie Bingley, 49, who clocked a time of 21 minutes.

He said: 'It was a bit icy this morning but by the time we started it was good running conditions around the route with the sun.'

Gary Walker, who was second over the line, is part of a team of volunteers who put on a free park run around The Walks every Saturday morning.

He said 12 people who took part in the weekly 5km run also participated in the charity event.

Reuben De-Souza, nine, was the first youngster to finish the 1.5km run.

He was part of a team of 15 runners from St Edmunds Primary School's running club.

The nine-year-old said: 'I made sure I started at the front and then pushed myself all the way.'

Teaching assistant Glenn Russell, who runs the running club, added: 'The children were really keen to take part in this run for charity.'

It was the second time the Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House has held a Santa dash in West Norfolk following last year's successful dash at Sandringham.

Richard Shaw, the charity's chief executive, said the route had to be changed late last week because of flooding in the park.

He continued: 'On a cold and frosty morning to see so many people come out to support a local charity is a great thing to see.

'There has been a lot of fun and banter amongst the runners while raising a lots of money for our charity.

'This is only our second Santa dash but we've had more runners this year and we hope this event will continue to grow.'

The Norfolk Hospice, Tapping House has provided palliative care to people with cancer, neurological and other life-limiting conditions since 1984.

The charity supports more than 280 people every month at its current hospice in Snettisham and has the support of 250 volunteers as well as paid staff.

It launched the Seahorse Appeal last month to raise �750,000 to help give people greater choice on where they want to die.

The funds are needed as the charity gears up to move into a new �4m full-service hospice near King's Lynn, which will provide 12 inpatient beds, next year.

The new hospice, along with the charity's Hospice at Home team, will help the charity give a more complete service to more people in west Norfolk, north Norfolk and parts of Cambridgeshire.

For more information about future fundraising events and the charity visit www.norfolkhospice.org.uk.