Mother Justine Womack is aiming to raise more than £1,000 for a charity that is close to her heart, when she takes part in her first Bath Half Marathon on March 3.

Mrs Womack, 43, of Kingston Deverill, is a public health specialist at the Department of Health and will be running on behalf of Auditory and Verbal UK, which helps hearing impaired children.

The charity was instrumental in helping Mrs Womack’s profoundly deaf daughter, Martha, seven, after she contracted pneumococcal meningitis at 14 months old and lost all her hearing.

Using play and focusing on training parents and carers, Auditory Verbal UK built Martha’s listening skills and vocabulary word-by-word after she had cochlear implants five months later.

Mrs Womack, who is married to David and has another daughter, Georgia, 10, said: “They did a huge amount to help us when my daughter lost her hearing.

“After she had cochlear implants, the charity provided support and training to show us how to help Martha learn to listen and speak with her new electronic and limited hearing.

“The early years are so critical to speech development and Martha had already lost a lot of time, but, thanks to Auditory Verbal UK, she started primary school at the same stage as her hearing peers.

“The work the charity does helps teach listening and speaking techniques to parents, which we used to help make Martha the happy and confident seven-year-old she is today.”

After three years of auditory verbal therapy fun, play-based sessions, more than 80 per cent of Auditory Verbal UK’s children enter mainstream schools.

Mrs Womack added: “This will be my first Bath Half Marathon, but training has been going well. Hopefully, I can reach my target and help this fantastic charity.”

Donate via www.justgiving.com/ Justine-Womack.