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About 5,000 people ran through Liverpool as the city's Santa Dash staged a return.

Believed to be the country's biggest festive 5K run, the event was held for the first time since the pandemic.

Participants, who wore red and blue Santa suits, were raising money for the city's Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

Four-year-old patient Betty, who spent 13 months at the hospital after being born at 23 weeks, officially started the event.

She was joined by former Liverpool footballer and pundit Jamie Carragher, who was treated for the first six weeks of his life in Alder Hey's neonatal ward.

Betty's mother Karen said participants were helping to "make it possible for families to be together and in the safest of hands".

Picture credits: Jason Roberts/PA Wire

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