A YOUNG mother has walked 25 miles to mark a year since the death of her baby and raise money for the charity she says saved her.

Rachel Hetherington’s baby Briannah’Rae died in her arms at just ten months following a battle with a terminal illness after contracting the bacteria Group B Streptococcus during labour.

Following her daughter’s death on January 29, Miss Hetherington, who is also mother to four-year-old Layton-Lewis and eight-month-old Louie-Rae, was given invaluable help from fundraising champion Mark Solan, who is behind The Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust.

The 22-year-old staged a memorial walk from James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, to her daughter’s grave in their home town of Newton Aycliffe on Saturday to say thank you.

“We picked the walk because James Cook was where my journey started with Briannah’Rae,” Miss Hetherington said. “She [Briannah’Rae] was sent home to die with her family but that wasn’t the case she fought and fought and fought for ten months before she passed away and the way I seen it was that’s where it started and the cemetery was where out journey finished and my Briannah’Rae didn’t give up her fight for life so I wasn’t giving up to fight to the end of this walk.”

Miss Hetherington was joined by four friends for the gruelling nine-hour challenge.

The team dressed up as princesses and the young mother donned a Mini Mouse top and a tutu – the same outfit she buried her little girl in.

They were met by family and friends and released five pink balloons at Briannah’ Rae’s grave.

“The feeling could not even be explained,” she said. “As soon as we got to the gates my auntie who brought me up was there and I just fell into her and my cousins arms crying I couldn’t of possibly took another step my whole body was ready to shut down.”

To sponsor the team visit justgiving.com/crowdfunding/briannahrae