A TEAM of women who work for Customs and Excise have a special reason for joining the effort to raise thousands of pounds for cancer research this weekend.

Thirty women from the Southampton office at Compass House in Maybush will be dedicating their effort in this year's Race for Life to colleague Amanda Spencer, 31, who is fighting breast cancer.

The Customs and Exercisers are entering the all-women national event in aid of Cancer Research UK for the third year, and feel this year its importance has been brought home to them more than ever.

"We have entered a team for the last couple of years," said team member Liz Challand.

"The reason is to raise funds for cancer research, but some of the women have had their own personal battles with cancer.

"This year it has been brought home more because of Amanda's plight, so we decided to dedicate our team effort to her."

Members of the team, who will all be wearing blue Customs and Excise baseball caps, range from just five years old to 55, with some families entering three generations of women in the 5km event.

More than 10,000 women are expected to take part in Sunday's event on Southampton Common.

"Some will be walking and some will be running," said Liz. "But we all generally meet up before and after the race - to make sure everybody who has gone out comes back again!"