A RUNNER says he will be thinking of the young daughter he lost every pace of the way during the Virgin Money London Marathon.

Andy Phillips is competing in the country's premier long-distance race in memory of daughter Chloe, who died aged just ten in March 2015.

Chloe, a pupil at Thurlbear Primary School, had been looking forward to a new life with a new kidney donated by her father after years of ill health before she unexpectedly took a turn for the worse and tragically died.

Somerset County Gazette:

Andy and his wife, Caroline, and their other daughter, nine-year-old Lucy, who live in Chestnut Drive, have struggled to come to terms since that dark day almost three years ago.

Andy is raising money for Bristol Children's Hospital, CLIC Sargent and Oak Ward children's unit at Taunton's Musgrove Park Hospital in gratitude for the help they gave Chloe during her short life.

"I'm running the London Marathon in her memory," said Andy. "I want to make her feel proud of me just as I was proud of her.

"I'll be pounding the streets of London thinking of her all the way round.

"She went through so much, but she was always happy and never complained."

Chloe was 15-months-old when she was diagnosed with bilateral Wilms tumours on both kidneys, having one of her kidneys removed three months later and 90 per cent of the other one taken out at the age of two.

Later on she spent many hours on a dialysis machine firstly at hospital and then at home.

She then underwent the transplant operation in 2015, when she received one of her father's kidneys.

Ten days later she had a cardiac arrest, followed by a brain haemorrhage that proved fatal.

Andy said: "All she wanted was a new kidney to make her better and put an end to everything she'd been through in life.

"We'd been told 'Chloe's and your lives are going to be great from now on'. Ten days later she died. It's something you never get over."

Andy, who used to go running once a week as his "thinking time", is currently running 28 miles a week in training for the run in the capital on Sunday, April 22.

He added: "I'm planning to increase the distance I run and have two objectives in the marathon - the first is the finish it and then I want to do it in under four hours."

You can support Andy's run by searching for andrewphillips at uk.virginmoneygiving.com