The shadow of cancer has touches the lives of many families, but Sunday saw the battle of two brave Perth youngsters in particular prove inspirational.
Hundreds wore T-shirts for Lily Douglas and Leva Stewart as the city staged this year’s Race for Life event.
Lily was amidst a sea of pink as around 800 women and – for the first time – men gathered to raise funds for Cancer Research UK.
The nine-year-old took to the stage with mum Jane, dad Scott and best pal Cerys Robertson to tell her tale, cheered on by participants, many of whose own lives had been touched by cancer.
Jane revealed that Lily, 9, was running for all the children she has met at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh.
Almost 300 runners took part in the 10K race, which was won by Niamh Young from Perth in a time of just 46 minutes and six seconds.
Following closely behind were Rosie Aitken from Perth and Sandra Taylor from Bridge of Earn.
Among the finishers was Dannielle Nash, 25, from Markinch in Fife.
She said: “I was running for my granddad, Benjamin, who lost his life in February, on what was world cancer day.
“It’s the first time I’ve done anything like this and I went right for the 10K.
“It was even harder than I expected.”
Dannielle finished in a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes and 47 seconds.
Lily and her mum spoke to those gathered for the 5K race before themselves taking part in the Family Race, joined by hundreds of supporters wearing “Team Leva and Lily” t-shirts.
Organisers said more than £62,000 had been raised by the Perth event, which invited men to take part for the first time.
