A CONSULTANT whose baby son who died of a rare lung disorder is preparing to run a marathon with other medics to raise funding for research.

Simon Ashwell, a consultant at the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, will be running the Edinburgh Marathon on May 31, along with Dariush Kamali, a surgeon at the same hospital and Simon’s sister, Gemma Ashwell, a West Yorkshire GP.

They will be running in memory of Simon’s son, David Ashwell, who sadly died at just 15 days old in March 2011 from Alveolar Capillary Dysplasia (ACD), a rare congenital disorder.

At the time, Simon and his wife Amelia, a lecturer at Durham University, discovered there was very little medical understanding of the fatal condition and very few of their questions about the disorder could be answered.

As a result they set up the David Ashwell Foundation to raise funding for research. Since it was set up four years ago it has raised £138,000.

An additional £1,500 has been pledged in sponsorship for the forthcoming marathon.

Dr Ashwell, from Stokesley, said: “It’s much more than we thought we would raise. We’ve now funded four research projects into ACD so we’re learning more about the condition and we’re just about to fund a fifth just now.

“When David was diagnosed with ACD there were so many questions unanswered.

“In the last four years, partly funded by our foundation, there has been a lot more knowledge of the condition which has helped parents. That’s the aim of this fundraising; to help parents.

“One of the problems we had after David died was no one seemed to be able to answer the questions we had - there’s now more answers because of the research.”

To donate, visit the website; www.virginmoneygiving.com/DAFEdinburgh15