Try to skin the banana in cancer fund fun run

It's that time of year again - when everyone chases after a bloke in a banana outfit in the Beat the Banana run organised by the World Cancer Research Fund. This year's event, the second, will take place on January 28.

Philip Oakden (below left), managing director of MIX, was the banana on The Peak run last year. This year's banana is the reigning champ, lawyer Nick Luxton (below right). Runners will obviously find him a-peeling. The race starts at the Cultural Centre piazza in Tsim Sha Tsui.

'It's only 3.5km,' said Neelam Nourani, who has been helping promote the race. 'I'm pregnant, but I'm walking it. My mother-in-law recently passed away with cancer, so I felt I needed to do something.'

Why Beat the Banana? The banana is a great form of nutrition, and since one in four men and one in five women get some form of cancer, the fund is keen to promote good eating. But it's also because Beat the Gourd doesn't work - it's neither alliterative nor involves a funny-shaped fruit with a titter effect.

For more information, see www.wcrf-hk.org.

Next week: Go for the Garlic, Overtake the Onion and Clobber the Carrot.