A KENDAL youngster who suffers a debilitating disease has inspired a team of South Lakelanders to sign up for the Great North Run.

Ella Dixon, aged seven, is one of just five girls in the whole country who suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy - and this weekend she will cheering on seven locals as they put their best feet forward for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

Dad, Craig Dixon, who lives with Ella and wife, Clare, in Kendal, said: “I’m doing the run with the rest of ‘Team Ella’.

“Anything I’ll do to make my girl better, I’ll do.

“They’re close to a breakthrough with treatment for the illness and that’s going to spur me on to cross the finish line this weekend.”

Brave Ella has never climbed a tree or been able to ride a bike and she is under the constant care of doctors in Barrow and Newcastle.

Because the condition is so rare in girls, very little is known about how it will progress, although medics say it could eventually leave her paralysed with muscle and organ wasteage.

Now the group are hoping to raise as much as they can for the charity, which funds research into the condition.

“We’d just ask people to donate as much as possible,” added Mr Dixon.

“We won’t be beating Mo Farah on Sunday but we’ve all worked hard to train for it and we hope it brings in a lot of sponsorship!”

Almost 60,000 people are expected to descend on Newcastle on Sunday for the 13.1-mile event.

The Kendal group will also be joined on the day by Sarah Wilcox, volunteer fund-raising manager at the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign.

She said: “Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy affects around 2,500 men and boys in the UK, but the number of young girls thought to have the condition can be counted on one hand.”

For more information on donating please visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/ella76