A HOLYWELL dad will be pushing himself to the physical limit by running for 24 hours to raise funds for a revamp of a school yard in memory of a local toddler who died last year.

Daniel Thomas, from Holywell, wants to help St Winefride’s Catholic Primary School reach their £14,000 target to revamp the school yard with new fences, an artificial grass area, an all-weather shaded area and a large apparatus play area.

The father-of-two will be running continuously for 24 hours the Holywell Leisure Centre in Gwenffrwd Road in memory of three-year-old Josh McHugh.

He said: “Josh would have been four this July and, to commemorate him as part of his community, I am going to help raise as much as I can towards the school’s revamp.

“As a personal trainer, I want to change people’s lives for the better. This will be a challenge, but it’s going to go towards such a good thing that will ensure Josh will be known by those he would have been at school with, like my own daughter.”

The former joiner began running after his son, Albie-junior, had his foot amputated due to a condition called fibula hemimelia.

He said: “I wanted to show my son that you can achieve anything you put your mind to, turning a negative situation to a positive one.”

Since then, Daniel has become a keen racer, competing in several long-distance runs across the UK as well as events in Lanzarote and Italy.

During the challenge, he is hoping to clock up 90 miles on the treadmill – the equivalent of running up and down a standard football pitch 1,584 times! – and make a £5,000 contribution towards the revamp.

To find out more about his challenge, and to donate, go to gofundme.com/joshua-mcugh-st-winefrides-school-memorial-fund.