THE first woman across the line at Poole’s Race for Life morning event collapsed a few seconds after completing the 5km course on the hottest day of the year so far.

Carly Harrison finished in 22 minutes 23 seconds as 1,749 other women took part at Poole Park on Sunday with temperatures at 26 degrees Celsius.

She won the 11am start, then fainted, as she moved to her waiting boyfriend, dropping a bottle over herself.

The 28-year-old from Boscombe in Bournemouth, a teacher at Hill View Primary School, who also won in 2008, quickly recovered.

“I needed a drink after the first two minutes running,” she said in the medical tent.

“When I got to 3km I felt like I wanted to stop – I probably should have! I felt sick and the at the end it all just got the better of me.”

The ladies-only event was in its eighth year and raised £290,000 for Cancer Research UK.

The emphasis, as usual, was on fun and mass participation and the runners and walkers were a mass of pink tutus, pink T-shirts, pink wigs – pink everything.

Alex Glover, 36, from Ensbury Park, was running for her six-year-old son Ryan who survived a brain tumour.

She said: “I always find it get very emotional – I broke into tears at the start. You just read what everyone is going through. The crowd was brilliant today.”

Fitness instructor Debbie Whittle warmed the runners up and first off the line in the morning was Isobel Warren, aged nine, from Poole, who has raised more than £10,000 over five years.

The second and third places went to Emma Whitney and Amelia Davis.

Dr Angelica Cazaly, a scientist at Cancer Research UK’s specialist centre in Southampton, took part in the 2pm start.

The winner was Laura Pulis – daughter of former AFC Bournemouth boss Tony Pulis – and the second and third places went to Susan Lightfoot and Kate Cadbury.

Rosannah Dawood, the Cancer Research UK, event director, said: “The support we get in Poole is quite something. There’s a real sense of community and it’s one of the best events we do.”