A COURAGEOUS toddler born with a life-threatening condition has inspired her dad’s friend to run the London Marathon in a bid to help others fighting similar illnesses.

Olly Temperley, aged 26, of Diglis, Worcester, hopes to raise more than £2,000 for Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charities when he takes on the Virgin London Marathon on April 21.

He chose the charity because his friend Chris Wyse, aged 27, of Ronkswood, Worcester, has a 22-month-old daughter, Jovie, whose life was saved thanks to the superb care she received in intensive care at Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

Jovie has a condition called congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, also known as ‘Ondine’s Curse’, which affects the central nervous system and prevented Jovie from breathing when asleep.

Mr Temperley, who now works for Free Radio in Worcester, became friends with Jovie’s dad when they worked together in the advertising department of your Worcester News.

He has completed a half-marathon before but this will be the first marathon and he trains six times a week to prepare.

“You realise when you go just how much money they need to raise to keep it going. It’s not all funded by the NHS,” he said.

“It’s motivating – it gives you a target. You think of all the money that people have put behind it and think ‘I can’t fail this now’. It’s a bit of a personal challenge.”

He is also hoping to raise some funds with ‘The One Night Bar Takeover’ at the Quay on the Waterfront at South Quay in Worcester on Thursday, March 21.

All the takings on the night, which runs between 6pm and late, will go to the cause.

Jovie’s dad, Mr Wyse, said Birmingham Children’s Hospital had been “fantastic” and had given his daughter one-to-one care at her bedside.

He said: “The level of care the children are given there is second to none. You don’t realise how much work is being done there until you go there. Jovie is now coming along fantastically.

“As far as her condition goes, she is dealing with it really well. Our family can’t praise intensive care at Birmingham enough.”

Jovie has a carer who comes in to look after her while she’s asleep and she still has to be on a ventilator at night and will be indefinitely.

She is ventilated via a tracheotomy and that will continue for the next two to three years but her family hopes she will eventually be able to breathe through a face-mask.

He said he was ‘chuffed to bits’ his friend was running the 26-mile marathon for the cause.

To sponsor Olly visit justgiving.com/ollylondon2013