Atherstone father in daily 5km after charity helped daughter

A man whose daughter was born with a hole in her diaphragm has run 5km a day for a year to raise money for a charity that supported them.

Chris Davies, 36, from Atherstone, Warwickshire, has worn special outfits, including a union jack onesie and a Halloween Dracula cape, for some runs.

Seven-year-old Poppy had a 50% chance of surviving and finally came home at eight months old on a ventilator.

Mr Davies has raised £2,000 for CDH UK, double the original target.

His partner, Hannah Watford, 37, said she was "massively proud".

She added: "With the year we've had, he's not moaned. He just does it quietly."

On Easter Sunday the Jaguar Land Rover worker had the union jack onesie with a rainbow flag to represent the NHS.

For Armistice Day on 11 November he completed 11km, going around memorials in the area, with a Lest We Forget flag that acted like a cape to run in.

The challenge for a year has also included "550 laps of the garden" for 5km during isolation, which he "kind of enjoyed".

Mr Davies, whose record is 21 minutes 33 seconds, said: "Some days I'm a bit achy. Some days I go for it.

"(It's) less than 10 days I've been wet. I normally look at the weather and try to orchestrate it between showers."

His partner said her daughter was off the ventilator aged one and a half, but Poppy had "battled through numerous operations" and underwent a hernia operation this year.

CDH UK consists of people affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia and Ms Watford said it was "quite flexible" what the money was spent on, but could include medical research and equipment.

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