FARMING sisters from Silsden completed the Great North Run at the weekend to raise money for blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan.

Georgina Fort and Becky Stapleton, who both work on the family dairy farm, joined tens of thousands in Sunday's race from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, won for the third time in a row by four time Olympic gold medalist Mo Farah.

The sisters were inspired to run for Anthony Nolan after their mum Stephanie had a stem cell transplant in 2014 to treat myelodysplastic syndrome, a form of blood cancer.

Georgina, 27, said "When my mum was diagnosed with blood cancer everything happened really fast. One moment she was feeling ill, the next she was in hospital having chemotherapy. We did a lot of reading about the treatment at each stage to try and understand what was going on. We found the Anthony Nolan website really helpful and got a lot of information from there."

Thankfully Stephanie's brother was a match for their mum, but two in three people who need a transplant will not have a matching donor in their family and will have to rely on finding an unrelated donor through the charity.

While Georgina and Becky, 35, have both done the Great North Run before, this is the first time the sisters have run it together.

"I haven't been able to train as much as I would like because of an ankle injury," said Georgina.

The pair have raised more than £1,700 for Anthony Nolan so far and are now aiming to hit the £2,000 mark. A barbecue they organised on the dairy farm raised more than £1,200 and has contributed to their fundraising goal.

As well as raising money Georgina, who is a member of Lothersdale Young Farmers Club, is keen to raise awareness of the need for more stem cell donors among her peers.

"Doing things like running the Great North Run is helping to get the message out, but I want to do more to recruit young farmers to the register," said Georgina.

She is planning a series of fundraising and awareness-raising events in the future to make sure more Young Farmers, of which there are 1,700 in Yorkshire alone, are aware of the donor register.

Kirsty Low, head of events at Anthony Nolan, said: "We are delighted that Georgina and Becky have run with us this year and we're so grateful for their support. Mile by mile, our team will be saving lives. The funds they raise will enable us to recruit potential stem cell donors to the Anthony Nolan register any one of them could be a lifesaving match for someone with blood cancer."

Georgina and Becky can still be sponsored via the website justgiving.com/fundraising/Georgina-Beck16

To find out more about fundraising for Anthony Nolan, visit anthonynolan.org

Potential donors must be between 16 and 30 years old, must be healthy and weigh more than 55kg.