Fleet former soldier runs 131 miles to help girl's disease fight

Darren Hardy was helping to raise money for Aggie Candy-Waters, who suffers from H-ABC.

A former soldier has run five marathons in 50 hours to raise money for a girl suffering with a rare brain disease.

Darren Hardy, who lives in Fleet, Hampshire, completed the challenge on Sunday after being moved by the story of 12-year-old Aggie Candy-Waters.

Aggie had appeared to be a healthy child but was diagnosed aged five with H-ABC. She is now wheelchair-bound and her condition is deteriorating.

The run raised £17,700 towards starting human trials for a new gene therapy.

The disease has left Aggie wheelchair-bound and she is losing the ability to speak

Father-of-two Mr Hardy, 35, said he first heard about Aggie's condition three weeks ago and set up a Just Giving page to help raise the money.

He completed the back-to-back marathons, which came to 131 miles (211km), running along the Dorset coast and carrying everything he needed in a backpack.

"There was a moment coming into marathon three that I hit a real low point and felt like that was it," he said.

"I tried to sleep for 10 minutes as I hadn't slept in 37 hours, but the pain in my feet was too much.

"So I rang Aggie's parents to get a photo of Aggie, and I also got a picture of my own kids sent through. That was all I needed to push me through to the end."

Aggie (pictured around the time of her diagnosis aged five) appeared healthy as a younger child

The money raised will go towards the target of £1m needed to start human trials in the US at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where doctors are developing a gene therapy they hope can slow down the disease.

Richard Candy-Waters, Aggie's father, said he would be "eternally grateful" to Mr Hardy.

"It's absolutely priceless that Darren can raise the profile of the condition, and the gutsy way that Darren has taken on this challenge is extraordinary," he added.

Mr Hardy left the Army after 15 years in 2017 with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a badly damaged shoulder, but has since completed a series of extreme sports challenges for charity.