For three years, a group of people have been lacing up their trainers to run around Talkin Tarn and hitting fitness milestones.

Head Torches Round the Tarn is celebrating three years of building confidence and forging friendships through running.

Since beginning, members of the group have grown confident enough to take part in races and marathons - which they wouldn’t have done before.

Sarah Lewis-Briggs, the founder of the group, said: “I wanted a group of people to go running with and I wanted them to be supportive of one another.

“It has organically become a community.

“Everyone is really supportive of each other as well, which is great.”

Only a few months after Head Torches Round the Tarn started, half of the group ran in a popular charity run.

For some, this was the first time that they had taken part in something like this.

Sarah, 58, from Brampton, said: “That July, about six people did the Race for Life in Carlisle.

“For some of them that was a really big goal, because some of them hadn’t run at all before and some had done very little running.

“It was also an incredibly hot day and we had a picnic afterwards, so people’s partners came along as well and their children.

“I was so proud of them.”

Sarah started the group after running with a couple of friends here and there, but there was nothing set in stone in terms of a formal running group.

She also found that there is more accountability when you are running with a group of people.

“I’m not terribly good at going out running on my own, particularly in winter when it’s dark,” she said.

“Because there had been some interest, I just thought ‘I’ll see if a few more friends would do this as well’.

“It started with only me and two or three other people, then they would tell their friends as well.”

The group celebrates personal milestones with cake and certificates - and is always eager for new members to join.