THE father of a baby girl who died of meningitis is set to scale the three highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales in 24 hours to help find a vaccine for the killer disease.

Clara Fox was only ten months old when she contracted pneumococcal meningitis and septicaemia and died on October 6 last year.

Her parents, Claire and Stefan Fox, from Upper Poppleton, York, have since devoted their time to raising awareness of the disease, and raising funds to support research by Meningitis UK, in a bid to save future parents the heartache of losing a child.

Now Stefan, together with eight of his work colleagues from Playscheme, in Elvington, is taking part in the National Three Peaks Challenge.

Starting on Friday, June 4, the team will have only 24 hours to climb 1,344m above sea level at Ben Nevis, 978m at Scafell Pike and 1,085m at Snowdon, with a 500-mile drive between the three mountains.

Stefan said: “When I lost my daughter last year everyone at work wanted to do something to help support Meningitis UK to and we came up with the idea of the national Three Peaks Challenge.

“We started training in January and we have just managed to do the Yorkshire Three Peaks over the weekend as a practice run, which was gruelling.

“We hope to complete the 24-hour challenge and try and raise as much money as we can.”

Colleague Lee Thurston, who helped to organise the challenge, said the team had set themselves a £5,000 fundraising target.

He said: “We all wanted to come together and show our support for Stephan and Claire at an awful time.

“It is a tough challenge, but we want to raise awareness and funds for such an important cause.”

The company’s managing director, John Danby, has provided funds for accommodation and minibus hire so all the money raised will go to the charity.

To support Stefan, and colleagues Steve Paylor, Becky Paylor, Jo Wadsworth, Simon Mountain, Simon Woellner, Damian Krzywicki, Lee Thurston and Louise Thurston, in their challenge visit meningitisuk.tributefunds.com/fund/Playscheme3Peaks