yA fundraising Santa Dash in Newton Abbot on Sunday for Rowcroft Hospice acquired an extra poignancy after the man who inspired the event died just a day later.

Mady Bywater and her daughter, Elise, eight, decided to press ahead with the mile-long run at the town's recreation trust in Marsh Road despite the event's cancellation owing to a lack of participants.

Mady, of Back Road, Newton Abbot, was motivated by her grandad Bill Webber, from Kingsteignton, who was being cared for at the hospice.

His condition was deteriorating rapidly and it was questionable whether or not he might live to know the run had taken place.

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