THOUSANDS of people joined an annual fun walk arranged by an MP.

Around 2,000 walkers and stallholders raised money for numerous charities and good causes at the John Baron MP fun walk.

Since the event's first year in 2002, the fun walk has raised more than £1,000,000.

It took place on Sunday September 2 at Barleylands Farm, Billericay.

There was a barbecue courtesy of Team Handsome, music courtesy of Gateway 97.8, a field bordered by stalls and a variety of other refreshment tents. Billericay's town crier, Jim Shrubb, helped proceedings along.

Mr Baron said: "My thanks for Sunday’s walk go to the 2,000 walkers and stallholders for taking part, to the marshalls, to the wonderful team at Barleylands for hosting the walk, to the Army cadets for car parking duties, and to our own family of volunteers and committee members for making it all possible. We now wait to see total money raised from the charities.

"Our thanks also go to our bonus pot sponsors which this year were Swan Housing, c2c, Abellio Greater Anglia, Tunnelcraft Ltd, Brown & Carroll, Hallmark Care Homes, Leonardo, McDonald’s, RSE Building Services and others.

"Their £40,000 will help many good causes and actually pushed us over the £1,000,000 mark before the charities themselves raised any money on the day."

"Finally, our thanks go to Hallmark Care Homes for sponsoring the medals, to the team from Waitrose for volunteering on the day, to Abi’s Catering Supplies Ltd, to Gateway 97.8 for great music, to the Essex Ambulance Service for also manning an ambulance on the day, and to Jim Shrubb, our Town Crier. It was a great team effort all round.”