The purple-clad crowd, along with the 219 Army cadets, people in mascot outfits and bagpipe players made their ceremonial final lap of Jubilee Park just after 9.30am on Sunday.

Cancer Council community relations co-ordinator for Wagga Emma McAuley said the fundraising amount announced on Sunday was a preliminary figure, with the final result due in about eight weeks.

“We expect some more funds to come in then,” she said.

“”It’s slightly down on previous years, which could have been due to the fact that it has been 18 months since our last relay.

“Normally its an annual relay but we got washed out two years ago so we had to move it from October to March and it was too son to run another relay that year.

“It was slightly down but we’re really grateful for the money and we’re thankful for every person who took part.”

At the closing ceremony for the relay on Sunday, organisers handed out awards for the biggest teams and highest fundraisers.

Wagga Baptist Church was the biggest fundraising team at  $4719, Regional Imaging was the biggest fundraising business team at $3000 and the combined Kooringal High School and Wagga Christian College was the biggest school team at $930.

Wagga Relay For Life committee chair Duncan Potts thanked everyone who participated and organisers for their “unbelievable” amount of hard work.

“It’s been a great atmosphere out on the track, particularly with all the young people,” he said.