Over the moon!

9:30pm Sunday 20th May 2007

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THOUSANDS of women streaming through the streets of London in their bras on Saturday night might have looked like they were on a hen party. But they were in fact on a much more serious mission.

More than 15,000 people took part in the MoonWalk, a night-time marathon, to raise money for breast cancer.

Among them were more than 100 women from Swindon, most of them from the Twin Peaks, a local fundraising group, who trained for the event.

Also in the field was Sarah-Jane Howe, 33, of Ashton Keynes.

Sarah-Jane and her team of four walkers started the MoonWalk at 11.30pm on Saturday and crossed the finish line just after 7.30am yesterday.

"Honestly, I'm shattered," said Sarah after completing the 26.2-mile trek.

"We were walking for eight hours and three minutes. I have never done anything like it before.

"It is a very peculiar feeling. With the London Mar-athon there are lots of people around on the street cheering you on. But there is nothing like that.

"As well as the physical experience of walking 26.2 miles, the point two is very important. It is a really emotional experience as well.

"All the people that take part have been affected by breast cancer, so there were a few points where it all got too much and there were a few tears, but then we powered on."

In November last year, former Miss Thamesdown Sarah-Jane chose to have a double mastectomy to reduce her chances of developing breast cancer.

She took the drastic step, in spite of being young and healthy, after her mother and aunt both died from the disease.

"I had a choice to have a double mastectomy but I wanted to support all the women who didn't have that choice," said mum-of three Sarah-Jane who took part in the race with her best friend Ceryl Taylor.

"I was fantastic experience. We started the race in the VIP group, along with Jennifer Saunders.

"She was really nice and we got to chat a little bit, but everyone was trying to concentrate on walking.

"The worst bit was at around 20 miles. But then we put on the Ipod and some of the tunes we used to listen to at school helped us get to the end.

"A special friend came all the way up to London, just to see me cross the finish line, which meant so much that they came all that way just to give a bit of encouragement." Sarah-Jane and her team raised around £1,500 for cancer charities.

Julie Hennessy, 49, from Twin Peaks, said: We went up in three coaches.

"About 20 did the Half Moon and the remainder did the full course. It was fantastic."

They should know how much they raised on Thursday when they are going out to dinner to celebrate their achievements.