The Coventry Fun Run may have been cancelled on Sunday, but plenty of people refused to let the rain stop them from running for good causes. 

A team of 16 pounded the streets of Binley and Ernesford Grange, raising money for the special baby care unit at University Hospital, Walsgrave, and the Grace Research Fund for premature babies. 

And the Rich stadium threw open its doors for disappointed runners to do laps of the pitch, including nearly 60 people wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a photo of one-year-old Reece Goodman, who died last October of a heart condition. 

Michelle Friday, aged 32, of Ullswater Road, Ernesford, rounded up friends and family to run a four-and-a-half mile route she had devised around Binley. 

The team, called Joseph's Ladies, were running in honour of Michelle's son Joseph, who was born 14 weeks premature and cared for at University Hospital. 

Michelle, who works for Whitefriars Housing Association, said: "Joseph's doing really well, thanks to their care.  This is just our way of giving something back. 

"I think everyone is beginning to wish they hadn't signed up for this.  It's one thing when you can mingle with thousands of runners at the Memorial Park, but another being exposed running down Binley Road.

"But we had raised nearly £2,000 already and that was to much to let go.  We worked out a route that's exactly four and a half miles because we wanted it to be just the same as the fun run." 

The were joined by Linda Cubitt-Smith, aged 52, who was raising money for the Lighthouse Christian Counselling Service. 

Linda, from Stoke Green, said: "I read about what these ladies were doing in the Telegraph.  I just live around the corner and I'd raised over £350 so I didn't want to waste it." 

The Fun Run is Coventry and Warwickshire's biggest fundraiser, but tragic Reece's dad, Rob Goodman, said he could understand why organisers had cancelled the event. 

Rob, aged 30, said: "When I saw the pictures of the Memorial Park in the paper |I could see why they had called it off." 

Little Reece died lasts October from dilated cardiomyopathy. 

His face adorned T-shirts worn by runners raising cash for Cardiac Risk in the Young (Cry).  The T-shirts were provided by Unipart, where mum Lary Daly, aged 21, works. 

Rob said: "We had raised around £1,500 so we wanted to make sure we still ran."