IT WAS billed as the brightest Kolor Dash in Wales - and the paint-throwing extravaganza in Newport today in aid of St David’s Hospice Care delivered spectacularly.

The premise was simple - persuade hundreds of people to get sponsored to turn up to Tredegar Park to run, jog or walk around a course, at pre-determined stages of which they will be showered with various hues of powder paint by more than enthusiastic volunteers.

Sound like fun? Well, there was no shortage of folk of all ages willing to get a rainbow makeover in aid of the charity.

Last year, around 350 people took part in St David’s Hospice Care’s first Kolor Dash, and the charity vowed to make the event bigger and better this year.

It was bigger and it was better. Five hundred people signed up for yesterday’s event, and judging by our photographs, they had a blast.

“We are really pleased with the response. We are just looking to continually tweak the organisation of the Kolor Dash, to make it bigger and better, and we achieved that yesterday,” said Kris Broome, St David’s hospice care’s director of fundraising and lottery.

“It is one of our events that is for the whole family, and it was great to see the different generations taking part and loving it.

“We’d like to thank everyone who took part, and the bands and acts that supported us and performed for free.

“Many thanks too, to the companies that have backed the event and to our volunteers, the people on the colour stations, who had a great time too.

“Newport council has been good to us too, for letting us use the facilities at Tredegar Park.

“Watch out for the date of next year’s Kolor Dash.”

Entrants had to pay an entry fee and were encouraged to raise as much as in sponsorship as they could help St David’s Hospice Care provide a range of services and facilities for the thousands of terminally and seriously ill patients it cares for every year in Newport, Torfaen, Monmouthshire and Caerphilly.

These include the provision of clinical nurse specialists in palliative care who are attached to designated GP practices, a hospice at home service, family support, social workers, welfare rights advisors, complementary therapies, including at outreach clinics, and Unicorn its support service for children.

Countless pairs of sunglasses were donned by Kolor Dash participants yesterday, and as the air was filled with a gauze of colours, it was easy to see why they were needed.

Participants were urged to wear white to show off the colours, and for those worried about any effects of powder paint, a safety guide was available on the event’s website link.