Cancer Research UK has pulled its Manchester Shine fundraising event for 2013 after attracting 2,000 fewer participants than it had planned for, and will instead hold one big event in London to be more cost-effective.

Last September 3,000 people participated in the Manchester event, raising £600,000 for the charity. Some 10,000 took part in London, raising £2.6m.

John Tasker, head of events at CRUK, said: “Although we were originally hoping that 5,000 people would take part in Shine Manchester, in the end 3,000 participants signed up.

"We review all our events regularly and, as the number of people taking part in Shine Manchester has gone down since it started in 2010, we felt that it would make sense to retire it for 2013 and focus our efforts on one big event in the capital.

“This is because we feel we owe it to all our supporters to ensure that we raise money in the most cost-effective way possible, not because £600,000 isn’t a remarkable achievement,” he explained.

Shine events started in 2010 and involve people walking either a full or half-marathon overnight to raise money, which they can then allocate to a particular cancer type. Events have also previously taken place in Cardiff and Glasgow and the total amount raised so far for CRUK is £6m.

In 2010 7,500 people took part in Manchester Shine and in 2011 3,500 people did. Over the three years the Manchester event has raised more than £3m.

Supporters of the event took to the event’s Facebook page to express their disappointment at the decision, prompting the charity to respond: “As we make improvements over the next few years we hope to expand the events again so we can reach everyone in the UK.”

Complaints about stewards in 2012

Shortly after last September’s event a number of participants complained to the Manchester Evening News that stewards from the company G4S had sent them the wrong way.

The charity told civilsociety.co.uk that it was still investigating the incident.

• Cancer Research UK is the largest fundraising charity with a fundraised total of £351m, according to the Fundraising Director’s Survey which was published in Fundraising this month and online on civilsociety.co.uk. Its fundraising director Richard Taylor also told Fundraising what the secrets to its success were.