Seventeen women have come together to raise £2,000 in support of a Loddiswell man battling cancer.

Catherine Rippen’s partner, Jonathan ‘Joff’ Cater, has stage four cancer and a group of their friends got together to take part in the Race for Life Pretty Muddy Plymouth event to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

Six of them took part last year and this year Catherine said: “Everyone we knew, who could do it, wanted to do it.”

Catherine’s team was made up of herself, Joff’s best friend’s wife Lindsey Rutley who lives in London, Catherine’s best friend Sally Holding from Torquay, Joff’s sisters Zoe Bedington, Jenny Cater and Catherine MacDonald who all grew up in Loddiswell, Joff’s neice Ella MacDonald, 14, and her best friend Sophie Pope, 14, Katy Carter from Churchstow, Erica Blumer, Leanne Reid and Bryony Whiting from Loddiswell, Loddiswell Primary head teacher Louise Nicholls, Gemma Edmonds from West Charleton, Amanda Partington from Torquay and Al Oman and Emma Jones from Ermington.

Catherine explained why she wanted to raise money for Cancer Research: “Joff’s got stage four melanoma and he’s been on a revolutionary immunotherapy treatment on the NHS, which, after his latest scan, is shrinking everything.

“His treatment costs the NHS £180,000 for every year of treatment. He’s got another one-and-a-half-years of treatment, every two weeks.”

All husbands and partners were there to watch the team complete the challenge, which includes obstacles and A LOT of mud over a five kilometre course, in “horrible weather” at Central Park in Plymouth at the start of October.

If you would like to add to the donations for Cancer Research, visit Catherine’s fundraising page: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/catherines-fundraising-page-2558