The London Marathon will hold a special meaning for a Surbiton woman, determined to finish it in memory of her friend’s 18-day-old daughter, who died of meningitis 10 days before Christmas.

Evie Guy, is currently in training for the 26-mile run and is fundraising for Meningitis UK, in the bid to move one step closer to finding a vaccine.

Her friend Lucy Dunbar, 29, lost her little baby Ella just a day after she stopped feeding and started grunting on December 17.

Miss Dunbar said: “It was panic stations straight away. At some stage they said it could be meningitis and they were treating her with antibiotics.

“She was transferred to the paediatric intensive car unit at Evelina Children’s Hospital that night. She had been fitting and a brain scan revealed she was brain dead.

“We faced the heartbreaking decision of switching her life-support machine off at 2pm once all our family were there.”

Miss Guy aims to raise £2,000 and can be sponsored at meningitisuk.tributefunds.com.