Team Evie to take part in Great Cumbrian Run and fun run

One of the runners taking part in the fun run is Emma Ivison who is raising money for Team Evie which was set up in honour of her neice Evie Johnston, who died when she was just six months old in September 2015 after suffering a series of serious health problems.

Emma's brother Greg Johnston, Evie's father, is also running.

The charity set up in Evie's memory aims to help other families in similar circumstances by funding equipment for hospital wards like TVs and iPads.

Before she was born scans revealed that Evie had serious heart problems.

She was diagnosed with congenital heart disease, the organ was on the wrong side of her body and she also had a hole in her heart.

Even before she was born it was clear she would need three major heart operations and eventually a full transplant.

Born on the March 30 last year she went on to develop further complications - she was unable to swallow or digest, had serious breathing issues and suffered cardiac arrest.

In her short life, most of which was spent in hospital, she received 14 major operations.

Dad Greg, 32, from Dearham, who is a teacher at Our Lady and St Patrick's School in Maryport, said: “We lost our daughter a year ago this week.

“We set up the charity to help people on the wards which helped Evie and the families of children who face challenges like she did.

“It's gone remarkably well and we've had incredible support.

“We've helped hospitals in Cumbria and the RVI in Newcastle – we've just crossed the £50,000 mark.

“We set out to do what we could to help people.

“The amount of people getting in touch to say how much of a difference the things we have bought have made is incredible.

“Lots of people have done different events for us to raise money, from cake sales to swimming competitions – we've even got someone climbing Kilimanjaro in a couple of weeks.”

Emma, who teaches year 5 at Dearham School in Maryport, said: “There's a group of thirty teachers and students doing it, including me – I won't be running it though, I'll be staggering.

“Quite a few of our kids do cross country so I sent a letter out to see if anyone would be interested in joining in.

“We do lots of fundraising for Evie at the school.”

She said she was moved to action by Evie: “They managed to get her home for three weeks but she was rushed back to the RVI.

“She needed a major heart operation which she never recovered from.

“We shouldn't have had her for as long as we did - she was very strong and it has inspired all of us.”

In the short time the charity has been active it has raised £50,000 and they hope to raise £1000 from this weekend's run.

Their latest fund raising effort is a big leap into the unknown for some of Greg's fellow racers.

Greg said: “Some of our friends have never done a run before and wanted to raise money for Evie.

“We've all been training – I don't know how well everyone's is going but for the three who have never run before it has been a massive effort on their part to get in shape to do it.

“That's really good of them.

“I'm looking forward to it, it's going to be great.

“We've got a strip for everyone so we'll look really good - I'm excited to see them all dotted around the route.”

The secret behind their mammoth fundraising efforts, Greg said, was following Evie's example.

He added: “Evie faced a lot of challenges but we try and face everything with positivity, there's no room for moping.

“That's how she was, she was always smiling.

“When we lost her there was no option other than for her life to have a positive impact on other people's lives.

“Being able to put all our efforts into doing good through Evie means that when any one talks about her it's about how her life a makes a difference.”

In addition to Team Evie, the race organisers have nominated four charities as flagship causes this year: Eden Valley Hospice, McMillan Cancer Support, Teenage Cancer Trust and The Calvert Trust.

Visit ww.teamevie.org to find out how you can support the charity.