Pink tractor leads breast cancer awareness parade

Jody Marton organised the tractor run around North Yorkshire

A bright pink tractor has led a parade of 73 farm vehicles around North Yorkshire to raise money for breast cancer awareness.

Jody Marton organised the 44-mile (71km) tractor run after she was diagnosed with breast cancer in December.

The 38-year-old, from near Pickering, was given the all clear in June and said she wanted to "make something positive" out of her experience.

She has now raised more than £8,000 for the charity Breast Cancer Now.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was 37 and I just wanted to get on board with it, raise awareness and make people realise that you can be diagnosed at any age because under 40 is quite rare," she said.

"I have two young children so it was a big shock but I was determined from day one to turn something negative into something really positive and just crack on."

Living on a farm herself, she thought the best way to fundraise would be to do a tractor run.

Friends and family came together on Sunday to help, with people coming from as far away as Newark to join in.

The tractor was sprayed bright pink especially for the event

The star of the parade, the little pink tractor, belonged to Ms Marton's mum and step-dad and was refurbished especially for the event.

"It was actually made in 1957 and they decided that they'd spray it pink for me and we'd use it to raise a lot of money and create awareness," she said.

"I'd actually only driven that tractor for about 10 minutes before the tractor run.

"Tractor driving's not really my thing, but it just seemed like a really good thing to do."

People lined the streets to cheer on the tractor drivers, before they finished at the farm.

"We're definitely having one next year and hopefully it'll be even bigger," she added.

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