A KIND-hearted 11-year-old boy ran a marathon with a twist to raise money for a family friend who is battling cancer.

Beau McKee organised an alphabet marathon which saw around 200 volunteers come forward to join him.

People whose names start with each letter of the alphabet ran with Beau for a mile as he completed 104 laps of Copeland Athletics Stadium.

The young athlete raised £2,300 for Joanne Mahone, of Cleator Moor, who has recently been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The community has been raising money for her to receive treatment at a private clinic in Europe or America.

The McKee family are well known for their fundraising efforts – Beau’s dad, Gary, raised over £100,000 for Macmillan after running 100 marathons in 100 days in 2017.

Mr McKee said: “It went really, really well. He did it in under four hours which is incredible, considering he’s only 11.

“He fully understood what he was doing it for. He said he wouldn’t let anyone down.

“It’s hard to believe a child his age could be so driven to help somebody else. He just wants to help people.”

Beau’s dad ran the full marathon with his son, along with Michael Watson, Kevin Hetherington and Matthew Huby.

Mr McKee said having different people to run with and talk to along the way helped “pick him up”.

“The community that we live in is fantastic. There were elderly people who walked a mile and children as young as three and four who joined in. It was unbelievable the support that we had.”

The money raised was presented to the Mahone family at a fundraiser held at Cleator Moor Civic Hall on Saturday night.

Mr McKee said the family were “absolutely overwhelmed” with the amount raised.