More than £80,000 could be lost to this year's Race for Life from uncollected sponsorship.

Organisers of the Telegraph & Argus backed Race for Life, which took place in Lister Park last month, are urging runners and walkers to step up and collect their sponsorship money.

Race for Life organiser Katie Birkett said £109,000 had been collected so far from the Bradford races and money was still rolling in.

She said: "It is very important that sponsorship money is collected and returned, without it Cancer Research UK can not continue its work towards curing cancers faster and the future of treatment, cure and prevention for all cancers.

"Unfortunately only one in two people who participate in Race for Life actually collect and return sponsorship.

"If everyone raised £50 that would beat the target of £160,000 for the two races, but if half of these people do not collect their money in we lose £80,000."

"The women who took part in the race were remarkable and inspirational women and that was the hard work, this is the easy part now.

Miss Birkett said: "I would like to thank everyone involved and who have taken part so far in the 2005 Race for Life series; the female participants, the supporter, spectators and all those who have sponsored someone, the sponsors, especially Tesco; the volunteers and key partners - Athletic Clubs, Lions, Rotary and Ladies Circle, who worked to ensure each race has been a great success on the day itself and the T&A for getting the message across to one and all.

There were 162 races held across the country with 425,000 taking part and hoping to raise a phenomenal £23 million pounds to help cure cancer faster.

Some of that money will be spent at the University of Bradford's Institute of Cancer Therapeutics, where experts are developing treatments.