A FATHER embarked on his second 100 mile run to raise awareness and money for his daughter's little-known condition.

Ian Spriggs of Brampton, set himself the aim of reaching 100 marathons to raise the profile of PKU - a condition his daughter Molly has.

PKU prevents the person from eating high protein foods such as meat, cheese, poultry, eggs and milk.

The only treatment in the UK is a low protein diet, which means that the sufferer has to supplement their diet with artificial protein.

Last year Mr Spriggs completed the Thames Path 100, which is a 100-mile marked point to point race, which takes runners from Richmond in South West London to the centre of Oxford.

It was a struggle for Mr Spriggs, but he completed the run in 25 hours and 33 minutes.

Joining him on his second attempt at the run on May 4 was his mascot Pukie, an eight-inch little green man with yellow hair who has already been on many training sessions and even taken part in the Thames Path 100 last year.

Since that run last July the 52-year-old has lost three stone, to make completing his challenge easier this time around. Each time he runs he raises money and awareness for The National Society for Phenylketonuria (NSPKU), which helps and supports people with PKU and their families.

The NSPKU campaigns for a drug called Kuvan - which is available throughout the world but not in the UK - to be available on the NHS. The diet of people who respond positively to Kuvan can expand massively.

The company that produces the drug - BioMarin - has put a £70,000 price tag on the drug per adult per year. It is understood that the NHS has asked BioMarin to provide the drug at a discount.

So far NHS England has declined to fund Kuvan for cost reasons.

Mr Spriggs continued: "Our consultant in Newcastle has agreed to fund one month of the drug for a trial for Molly. She fits into the bracket that the drug should work.

"She would notice the difference. She would go to a vegetarian diet basically. He said there is another day coming up in Parliament, so we should wait for that.

"The problem is, if we have the trial she will have a month of 'this is wonderful, you can eat all sorts of things' - then it gets taken away at the end of the month."

In preparation for his second 100-mile run, Mr Spriggs completed a 62-mile run. He had hoped to reach 50 miles in 10 hours, but he did it in 8:45.

"I did a 62 mile run five weeks ago, that went brilliantly, the best long distance running I've done. All the progress has coincided with the losing of the weight, which I'm not complaining about."

Mr Spriggs set himself a goal for his second Thames Path 100.

"I don't feel I did it (the last one) on my own, I had help from my wife. Also, I didn't manage to get under the 24 hour mark, I missed it by an hour and a half."

In 2016 the 52-year-old set himself the task of completing 100 marathons, so far he has completed 54.

"I had a friend I was in school with 30 years ago and not long after I started running I was watching the British Marathon and they showed the participants, and I recognised this man straight away, I went to school with him and lived down the road from him.

"He (Steve Edwards) is the world-record holder for the most sub three hour marathons - he has 864. I got in touch with him after 30 years and we agreed on setting the 100 mile target."

On April 24 an event was held in Westminster to celebrate the first anniversary of the All Party Parliamentary Group for PKU, where MPs met with families, clinicians and medics to mark the milestone.

NSPKU on the same day delivered a petition to BioMarin calling on them to make Kuvan affordable for the NHS.

To find out more about NSPKU, visit www.nspku.org.

To donate to Ian's run, visit http://bit.ly/2W1lm1C.

To view the petition, go to http://bit.ly/2Vh9LyJ.