A father and daughter from Port Erin will this month be running the Liverpool half-marathon on Sunday (March 27), to raise money for a charity which helps dementia sufferers and their families.

Richard and Caitlin Gelder have raised more than £800 towards their target of £1,000 to donate to charity Forget Me Not.

Mr Gelder, who is chief executive of Manx Petroleum, said while he has always had a ‘vague interest in staying fit’ that his running shoes had mostly remained consigned to his cupboard since he last ran a half-marathon in 2016.

Richard told us: ‘I did lots of training in 2016 but I still found it really hard work.

‘Now, at 53, I have plenty of doubts about running a half-marathon again.

‘It’s six years since I’ve run any kind of distance and Caitlin has youth on her side.

‘She has also inherited my competitive streak so she won’t be going easy on me!

He continued: ‘This was her idea though and I just couldn’t turn down the opportunity of doing something special like this with her.

‘She agreed we’d only run it for fun, and to support the Forget Me Not charity, and so the tickets were booked!”

Forget Me Not’s mission is achieved by funding the provision of the Admiral Nurse Service hosted by Hospice Isle of Man.

The charity said that people with dementia in their family can find it difficult accessing support in the island, but that ‘the unique dementia expertise provided by the Admiral Nurse Service helps families live more positively with dementia in the present, and face the challenges of tomorrow with more confidence and less fear’.

The Admiral Nurse Service currently has two nurses specifically trained in dementia, with plans for a third.

l People can still donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/caitlin-gelder