HUNDREDS of people descended on the tiny village of Llangynidr for this year's In The Pink charity walk.

The event is in its tenth year and the money raised goes to help fund the In The Pink Research Team, based at Velindre Hospital.

Welsh singer Iris Williams, known for her top selling for her 1979 hit single 'He Was Beautiful' dropped in on this year's after walk party and said: "I think this is a wonderful cause and I've come along here today to wish everybody at In The Pink a happy tenth anniversary of this walk.

"Breast cancer is very close to me because I have a lot of friends who have passed away with this type of cancer including my mother . Obviously a cause like this is very dear to me and I urge everybody to collect as much money as you possibly can for a worthy cause like this.

Iris told the audience that proceeds from her latest album Catch My Dreams will be donated to the In the Pink charity.

In The Pink was formed in 2001 by mother of two, Liz Sullivan and five friends. Since then the group have continued raising money for breast cancer research through a series of canal walks.

Liz said that the objective behind In The Pink' was to help eliminate the most common cancer affecting women in Wales – and to do it by means of research at Cardiff's Velindre Hospital.

Liz added: "Today has gone absolutely splendidly. We started off in brilliant sunshine in Brecon where almost 700 people descending on the start area as mini buses galore and cars kept on arriving.

"It was happy atmosphere, a sea of pink with everybody laughing and making it such a fun event.

"We've had a lot of people joining in the walk at various points along the route. We had some problems getting walkers to rejoin the walk once they entered the public houses along the route as they were enjoying the entertainment, but we soon got them motivated again.

"I spent a lot of time at the final bridge where a large crowd of us clapped all the walkers into the finishing arena."

One man chose not to walk the route but paddle in his canoe instead and rowed from Goytre to Llangynidr.

"I cannot believe that dedication as its such a fantastic thing to do by raising money in this particular way," added Liz.

"We knew the day before the walk that we had £20,000 in the bank from sponsorship and hope t double that from today's input.

"In the longer term we hoping for a total of £100,000 from this year's In the Pink canal walks."