Jogging gingerbread man surprises Calne drivers

A giant running gingerbread man has been spotted by drivers emerging from the mists in a town in Wiltshire.

Leanne Hames was filmed running as fast as she can around Calne at the weekend dressed up in the inflatable suit.

She said: "I lost my daughter to suicide nearly four years ago and this is my way of getting people to have that moment of happiness."

"I got lots of beeps, lots of waves and lots of yells from drivers. I think it cheers people up."

Leanne Hames said: "It fills up with condensation so I had to keep wiping the visor"

Ms Hames, who lives in Calne, bought her blow-up suit online and decided to take it for a road test for "a little bit of fun".

"I thought I'd just go out for a random run in it," she said.

"It was a bit foggy, so seeing a gingerbread man coming out of the mist must have looked quite amusing to people."

Sneaking out of her back door in the "massive" suit, she took off on a four mile (6.4km) jog around the town on Saturday.

"It takes up the whole path. So I chose to run the by-pass because it's nice and wide - if anybody needed to get past me," she said.

"It's got a fan inside so it inflates itself with some batteries and it keeps inflating as well," she said

But with "nowhere to put your arms" in the suit, she said running in the big and bulky costume was "really hard".

"It's lightweight but the legs are really short so you have a very short stride," she said.

"You can't really move your arms because you've got to hold it up so you can see through the visa otherwise you'd just crash into everything."

Leanne said running in the big and bulky costume was "really hard"

In 2020, Ms Hames lost her daughter Evie, 15, following struggles with her mental health.

She said she now just wants to make people "feel happy and put a smile on their faces".

"Everybody's loved it. Lots of people laughing about it and saying that it's brightened their day," she said.

"If I can do that for just one person, who is maybe having a tough time then my work's done."