EXERCISE enthusiasts from five North-East gyms are completing a relay of workouts to raise money in memory of a Hartlepool youngster.

The sponsored regimes will start at a gym in Gateshead before taking in gyms at Durham, Darlington and Teesside before the final workout in Hartlepool.

It is hoped that the event will raise hundreds for the Make a Wish Foundation, which helped the family of four-year-old Hartlepool girl Taylor Stallard whose short life was blighted by chronic lung disease and immune deficiency.

Make a Wish provided Taylor’s family with a Center Parcs holiday just three weeks before she died in June 2009, and family friend and Darlington gym-goer Adam Flounders said he had always wanted to give something back to the charity.

He and two friends are tackling the Hartlepool Big Lime Triathlon on September 21 as well as taking part in the workout relay on September 10 to raise money for the charity.

Mr Flounders said: “A lot of the more mainstream charities are very well known but you don’t hear so much about Make a Wish and what they did for Taylor’s family was brilliant.

“They made sure that the holiday lodge had all the medical equipment that Taylor needed so they didn’t have to worry about things.

“Instead of a lot of the other charities that concentrate on research, Make a Wish helps families create happy memories when its terminal.”

A just giving page has been set up and donations can be made via justgiving.com/af-ck-mr-triathlon/