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Knaresborough Tractor Run raises over £29,000 after record-breaking year

A record-breaking 423 tractors took part in this year's Knaresborough Tractor Run.

This year's Knaresborough Tractor Run has raised over £29,000 for charity, organisers have revealed.

It was a record-breaking turnout for the event on Sunday 9th March, with 423 tractors taking part in the convoy around the Harrogate area.

And the Knaresborough Tractor Run Committee have revealed the final fundraising total of £29,693.55 has been raised for Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

The event has now raised more than £163,000 for charity since it launched in 2012.

Starting at Harrogate’s Great Yorkshire Showground, the tractor convoy headed towards Pateley Bridge, taking in Knaresborough, Burton Leonard, Markington and Fellbeck.

Hundreds of spectators lined the streets to show their support - and they were treated to the event’s first DJ Trailer, manned by Your Harrogate staff and DJ Mark Green.

The committee behind the annual event are a non-profit organisation, registered as a Community Interest Company (CIC) and run by volunteers, all from an agricultural background.

Among those was started the event in 2012 was local farmer Michael Spink, who later died in an accident in January 2017 at the age of 24.

The event has continued in his memory every year since.

Claire Deacon, Community Fundraiser at Yorkshire Air Ambulance, said:

"It keeps the helicopters flying, every penny that’s raised goes straight into the charity. 

"We need to raise over £19,000 every single day to keep the helicopters flying and the money keeps the fuels in the engines.

"There aren’t that many staff in the charity and of course there’s that side of things as well, so there’s always a challenge of how much we need to raise year on year and it’s getting bigger."

(Photos: Rachael Fawcett Photography. See the full gallery from the Knaresborough Tractor Run here.)

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