HUNDREDS of runners turned out for a fundraising event on what was a sunny, warm day fuelled by a festival atmosphere.

Over 400 runners came to Barrow Park on Sunday (March 24) for the Move 4 Music event set up by Barrow's top fundraiser Dan Webber and Craig Troth.

The event was ran to raise money for the mental health charity Mind in Furness and came at a poignant time for Barrow when concern has grown towards the amount of people choosing not to speak out about mental health difficulties.

Mr Webber has also been a supporter of The Mail’s 'Time To Talk' campaign, which aims to tackle the stigma around mental health issues and has spoken openly to the whole community about the need for more people to speak out.

This was also a part of Mr Webber's fundraising initiative called Kick Off 4 Mental Health (www.kickoff4.co.uk).

On the day runners had three options for fun runs with a 2km, 5km and 10km race and were also treated to 15 music acts, including X Factor contestant Gregor Coleman. There was certainly a festival atmosphere about with gourmet street food stands, cakes and all sorts of goodies.

Mr Webber said: “The response has been absolutely fantastic and although we are obviously trying to raise funds for the charity it is even more important that we are getting the message out there that it is okay to talk about mental health - this is so important.

Barrow’s major Bill McEwan also attended and commended all the 'hard and fantastic work' that Mr Webber had done to set up the event.

Karen Dobson, chief officer at Mind in Furness, said: "Over the last 15 years that I've worked for Mind I have really started to see a change in people's attitudes towards mental health but there is still much more that needs to be done. We do a lot of things around peer support and people should always know that our door is always open." To get in touch with Mind in Furness call: 01229 827094.

St Pius X Catholic Primary School also had a strong force out on the day alongside their headteacher Kevin McGoldrick.