The sight and sound of more than 100 trundling tractors was welcomed with applause and cheers for one of the country’s biggest and pinkest vintage road runs.

A record number of women drivers took to the rural roads yesterday for the Ladies Tractor Road Run on the Suffolk/Norfolk border to raise tens of thousands of pounds for breast cancer awareness and research.

Hundreds of people lined the sun-kissed and pink bunting decorated streets of Harleston and its surrounding villages to witness 105 tractors complete a 20-mile circuit for Cancer Research UK.

Organisers from the Suffolk and Norfolk branch of the David Brown Tractor Club hailed the event as the “best ever” after the “Pink Ladies” dressed their engines in pink ribbon, tape, balloons, flowers and bras.

Co-ordinator Annie Chapman said she hoped the rally would top the �32,000 raised last year.

“It has been brilliant. Every year it gets better and we would not want to go any bigger than this.

“Harleston was unbelievably emotional. It was just stunning and I would like to thank everyone that came along and all the shopkeepers that decorated their windows,” she said.

Women from across Norfolk and Suffolk and further afield took part, including the oldest participant June McCoy, 79, from Birmingham, who was on her second tractor road run.

“I used to work on a farm 50 years ago and that was the last time I drove a tractor until last year. I am surprised by how many people remembered me from last time.

“The cheering and clapping was very moving when we moved through Harleston,” she said.

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