More than 1,580 mums, daughters, sisters and friends got completely soaked in mud to raise money for charity.

Dressed all in pink, and later covered in brown, fundraisers went to Central Park in Chelmsford on Sunday to participate in the Pretty Muddy event in the hope of raising £95,00 for Cancer Research UK.

The event saw participants making their way across an inflatable obstacle course whilst being sprayed with mud.

Rachel Parratt, Cancer Research UK’s East Anglia Events Manager, said: “Life-saving research is being funded right now thanks to the women of Chelmsford getting down and dirty in the fight against cancer.

“Our participants play a crucial role in helping to turn discoveries made in the lab into better treatments for patients in Chelmsford and across the UK and we’d like to thank everyone who took part in the event on Sunday.

“The atmosphere on the day was electric - full of emotion, courage, tears and laughter - as hundreds of like-minded ladies came together to unite in the fight against cancer. Now we’re asking everyone who took part, and all the friends, family and colleagues who pledged to sponsor them, to return the money they’ve raised as soon as possible. “Many people don’t realise that their entry fee only covers the cost of the event. It’s the sponsorship money that really makes a difference. Money raised - whether it’s £10 or £100 - will help Cancer Research UK scientists find new ways to treat cancer and save more lives.”

One in two people in the UK will be diagnosed with cancer at some stage in their lives, but the good news is more people are surviving the disease now than ever before. Cancer survival has doubled since the early 1970s and Cancer Research UK’s work has been at the heart of that progress.

Regional Science Spend paragraph: Cancer Research UK’s life-saving work relies on the public’s support. Thanks to the generosity of its supporters, the charity was able to spend around £41 million last year in the East of England on some of the UK’s leading scientific and clinical research - helping more men, women and children survive.

Dr Áine McCarthy, Cancer Research UK’s Senior Science Communications Officer, said: “We want to see people with every type of cancer, including those that are hard to treat, have the best chance of surviving their disease and living a long, healthy life afterwards. The advances we've made since Race for Life started in 1994 show we are moving in the right direction. “Thanks to new treatments and improvements in early diagnosis, more people are surviving cancer today than ever before. But too many lives are still lost. There are hundreds of types of cancer and we need continued investment in research to help us find new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat them all.

“That’s why we need everyone who took part in Race for Life in Chelmsford to take the vital last step by returning their sponsorship money so that our scientists, doctors and nurses can continue to make vital strides forward in research.”

Pretty Muddy is part of Cancer Research UK's Race for Life series.

Sponsorship money can be paid in online, by phone, by cheque or in person at a Cancer Research UK shop.

For information on returning sponsorship money, or to make a donation, visit www.raceforlife.org