THE daughter of a York academic who died in a freak accident in Italy is to honour her mother by running the London marathon on Sunday.

Julia Callan, 19, will tackle the gruelling 26-mile route to try and raise £2,000 for Oxfam, the favourite charity of her late mother, Professor Sally Baldwin.

The 62-year-old Lanarkshire-born academic was crushed to death last October when she fell through a hole in a moving walkway at Tiburtina railway station in Rome. Five men have been charged with manslaughter over her death.

Julia, a former pupil of Huntington School, began training for the marathon in November, and found it a therapeutic way of dealing with her grief.

"It stopped my frustrations and helped me get away from the tensions of life," she said. "It's been a hard few months and this was something to focus on." Julia is now living in London, where she looks after the children of her elder sister, Emma, but she returns to York most weekends to see her father, Joe.

In autumn, she will begin a degree in Psychology at Glasgow University, where many members of Prof Baldwin's family still live.

The marathon will be Julia's first big run, and she will be completing the route with her brother-in-law, Oliver, 35.

"I just have my fingers crossed that I can finish," she said. "I think my mum would be pleased I was doing it. My dad thinks I will manage it."

Julia has already raised about £1,500 in sponsorship and says the University of York has been particularly supportive of her challenge.

Her mother joined the department of social administration, later social policy, in 1973, and her groundbreaking research helped to secure millions of pounds in benefits for parents with disabled children. She was also a non-executive board member of York Hospitals NHS Trust.

Anyone who would like to sponsor Julia can do so on the website page http://www.bmycharity.com/oxfam/event.asp?eventid=26BD7E6B-1BAD-47B1-A7F9-852C2D8E4AC8 or send a cheque, made payable to Oxfam, to Julia Callan, 20 St John Street, York YO31 7QT.

Updated: 10:32 Friday, April 16, 2004