Colin hopes to return to fundraising trail with new Big Pink Dress

Caring Colin Burgin-Plews has raised thousands of pounds for the fight against cancer since first donning his eye-catching pink dress at the Great North Run in 2014.

Now he’s back on the fundraising trail – after taking special safety precautions.

He followed that up by becoming the unlikely star of his very own calendar, featuring him dressed in his popular pink attire in a host of landmark locations across South Tyneside, and also taking part in the London Marathon.

The dedicated dad, who lives in West Harton, South Shields, with fiancee Cath Burgin and son Ollie, has already raised more than £15,000 for Breast Cancer Now.

But his charity efforts suffered a false start when he was diagnosed with tenosynovitis (an inflammation and swelling of the tendons in his right ankle) in October – and was told he may never run again.

The 47-year-old’s injury was sparked by a fall caused by his trademark dress – and he is eyeing up a new design before he gets back in the pink.

He broke two toes in a heavy fall in last year’s London Marathon and is keen for history not to repeat itself.

He has designed a dress which will enable him to move more freely and hopefully more safely but it is going to be expensive to make.

The big-hearted fundraiser – who stands over 6ft 6in – has staged a remarkable recovery thanks to a period of rest and rehabilitation and has set his sights on being back on the starting line for another shot at the London Marathon in April.

After medical assessments, Colin now has an appointment with a biomechanic later this month to check his health status.

After announcing his plight in November, Colin was offered a year’s free membership at Lifestyle fitness at Crossgate, South Shields, by Jonathon Henderson, with the services of personal trainer Jamie Gray.

He was given advice on what to do to help heal the injury and an exercise programme to follow alongside nutritional advice. He was also offered free sports massages by Emily Owen at REC Therapies at Laygate.

As a result, Colin is now well on the road to recovery and is confident he will be fit enough to complete the marathon.

But he now needs a new dress to ensure he is back in the pink for his big marathon date.

Colin said: “The dress will cost approximately £250 to make, there’s a lot of material, padding, hoops, foam body suit etc and we’d love a company to sponsor it.

“The company logo or name can be incorporated into the design and I always manage to get TV coverage plus more than 1,000 followers on Facebook and another 1,000 on Twitter.”

If anybody can help, they can contact the Big Pink Dress fundraising team at [email protected]