Yesterday we shared the frustrating news that we will have to replace the usual finishers’ medals with high quality finishers’ t-shirts. You should have had an email to explain this, and further to that apology, we wanted to say sorry again for any disappointment. We completely understand your frustrations but we hope that you understand that we have tried to do the best we can to get you a replacement event memento in time for the event. Hopefully this won’t dampen your enjoyment of the day too much and you are still looking forward to run in support of this great cause.

A lot of you have been posting similar questions on social media and so we wanted to answer some of them here.

Some of you are saying that you would like your medal posted out after the run. Unfortunately, due to a supplier error, the medal production was not started and so we won’t be receiving them.

We wanted to make sure that participants received a great event memento as they crossed the finish-line, which reflected the price of the event. Therefore, we decided to put the medal budget into a different event memento and decided a technical running t-shirt would be the next best option. As our t-shirt supplier is based in the UK, they have been able to get us good quality t-shirts in time for the event, even at this late stage.

Our original medals take 12 weeks to make because they are bespoke to the event and are manufactured in China. However we have also contacted all UK suppliers to see if they could get us our original medal design in time for the event but none were able to hit the event date deadline, at the standard that we wanted for our participants.

From listening to your complaints on social media, we understand that, for many of you, it’s more than just a medal. We have managed to work with our supplier to arrange for some new medals to be produced in time for the event. These medals will not be our original design and they will not be as bespoke, but they will be another event memento to add to your collection, alongside the t-shirt.

We completely understand why you’re upset and we hope that you know how frustrating it is for us too, but we wanted to explain why there’s so much more to this event than the memento you get at the end.

The Cancer Research UK Manchester Winter Run is going to be a very special day, with over 250 members of crew and volunteers working together to create a unique atmosphere around the Etihad Campus. It really is a running experience unlike anything else out there, and a joyous day you are unlikely to forget. We have been working extremely hard for the last 6 months to ensure you have a brilliant time, by planning crazy penguin and husky zones, Swiss themed drinks stations, securing live music on the course, and recruiting teams of polar bears who will be with you at the finish to celebrate. We’re confident no other run inspires anywhere near as many photo opportunities as we do, and your friends are likely to double take when they see your selfie with a St. Bernard or Polar Bear.

This Sunday is also the culmination for many people of weeks and months of training, and a chance to achieve a goal they have been targeting for a long time. It has inspired thousands of people to keep running through the winter months, many of whom have never run a long distance before. Most importantly many of you are using this event to raise crucial funds for Cancer Research UK, and you have already donated tens of thousands of pounds. A huge thank you to everybody who is supporting their work, the passion and emotion behind why many people are running will be obvious on Sunday, with many personally impacted by the tragedy that cancer can cause.

So once again, we’re extremely sorry about the original medals. We know how important these are to many of you, but don’t let this dampen your excitement or determination ahead of Sunday’s run. Whether you are running to hit a personal goal, for charity, or both, please keep going and we look forward to celebrating with you as you cross the finish line on Sunday.