A CHESTER-le-Street family has been honoured for raising more than £130,000 for charity since their daughter died of epilepsy.

The Doyle family received their volunteer of the year award from the national charity Epilepsy Action at a ceremony in Leeds.

Helen and Ian Doyle and their son Stewart, backed by other family members and friends, started their charity effort after daughter Katy died in 2008 aged just 24 of Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP).

Katy, who lived with her family in Park Road North and worked as a clerical officer at Newcastle University, had only had epilepsy for 18 months before she died.

They launched the Celebrating Katy fund with the desire of helping other people who have epilepsy.

The family has a team that has completed the Great North Run for the last six years, and they have hosted several events and walked the Great Wall of China.

Last year they held a rock ‘n’ roll concert at Durham’s Gala Theatre to raise money for Epilepsy Action, spread awareness of the condition and to keep Katy’s memory alive.

Helen, Ian and Stewart have also worked with Epilepsy Action to campaign for an improvement in epilepsy services in the North-East.

Their efforts led to the creation of two new epilepsy specialist nurses for the region last year.

Mrs Doyle said: “We are very happy to receive this award from Epilepsy Action.

“Knowing that our fundraising plays a small part in improving the lives of other families affected by epilepsy is very rewarding.

“This is what Katy would have wanted us to do on her behalf.”