MOST people spend their Sunday mornings having a lie-in, reading the papers and generally taking it easy.

But not Joe Griffiths. For the father-of-two from Parr spent the other Sunday tackling the London Marathon in aid of a Blackbrook youngster with cerebral palsy.

Joe, who lives in Charnwood Street with wife Ann and sons, Lee and Jonathan, first featured in the Star when he announced his intention of running in the tough 26-mile race after hearing of the plight of two-year-old Ryan Hull from Hinckley Road, who also has severe epilepsy.

Ryan's mum Janet is desperately in need of new equipment for him and Joe was so moved that he decided to do the run to help out.

He told the Star: "I completed it in three hours and 56 minutes and I would have been quicker only there were so many runners that you tended to get stuck behind them. I didn't find it too hard going though because I worked hard at my training and I had a lot of help from John Linguard, from the St Helens Striders who was running in his 19th marathon."

No stranger to charity work in the past, he said: "I had always wanted to take part in a full marathon. As part of my previous fund-raising activities, I've competed in many half-marathons, as well as 72-hour snooker marathons of another kind! I am also a boxing coach in my spare time so for another charity stunt, I skipped solidly for three hours along with my brother-in-law Peter and friend Carl Robey. That was quite a challenge."

The next challenge for Joe is to collect all his sponsorship money together. Helping him do this is six-year-old son Jonathan, who readers will remember as last year's StarLad competition winner. Joe said: "He was really excited about the possibility of me being on TV and he recently ran his own one-mile mini-marathon in our local park and raised £14 for Ryan."

Also boosting the coffers is a cheque for £500 from Burtonwood Brewery, where Joe works.

Lynn D'Arcy, managing director of the Brewery, added: "We are delighted to be able to support Joe once again in his fund-raising, and wish him the best of luck with his appeal."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.