THE grand total of the money raised for charity through last year's Black Country Road Run has topped £20,000.

The Rotary Club of Halesowen and Rowley Regis are delighted with the total after they totalled up all the charitable donatations pledged by runners who tackled the 10km and 5km events last September.

Runners could either choose to raise money for the Rotary Club's chosen charities or donate money to causes close to their heart which increased the cash raised from the first fun run in 2012.

Event director, Rotarian Alan Bowler said: “The Rotary Club are extremely proud that only in its second year this relatively new community event has helped us to raise so much money for charity, it has exceeded all of our expectations.

"But we couldn’t have achieved this without the help and support of all our corporate sponsors, Dudley council and the many marshals and volunteers who helped us out on the day."

He added: "Our sincere thanks go to all of them and perhaps more importantly to each and every one of the runners who took part and raised money."

The Rotary Club also announced the winners of the best fundraisers this week.

Paul Finegan from Halesowen won the top fundraiser prize after raising £640 for the Royal British Legion (Halesowen branch) Poppy Appeal 2013.

Paul won a Mercedes-Benz 4x4 Driving Experience courtesy of one of the event’s main sponsors, Mercedes-Benz of Stourbridge.

The teenage winner was 15-year-old Lauren Hinton from Halesowen who ran in the 5km fun run and raised £520 for Ravens Rescue, a West Midlands based charity helping pets in need of care.

Lauren won six month’s family membership to Fitness Works in Halesowen, who were also sponsors of the event.

Kay and Millie Richards, also from Halesowen, were the winners of the family prize which was donated by Dudley MBC for two month’s membership for two adults and two children to any leisure centre in the borough.

Kay and Millie ran in the 5k Fun Run and raised £932 from their sponsorship which they are donating to a Brain Tumour Charity.

Local and national charities will benefit from the proceeds including the Rotary Club’s nominated charities - Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, The Whitehouse Cancer Support in Dudley, Midlands Air Ambulance, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Sunfield Children’s Home and Macmillan Cancer Support.