ELEVEN-YEAR-OLD Dexter Gillen-Murthwaite lost his cousin to meningitis at the age of four after spending the first few years of his life growing up beside him.

For the last seven years the schoolboy has wanted to do something in memory of Zak Davidson-Hargreaves, of Briercliffe. And this weekend he got his chance - raising more than £300.

Dexter, of Beech Grove, Lower Darwen, took part in the Colne to Rochdale stretch of the national Spencer Dayman 470-mile marathon awareness walk.

He and his auntie Donna Davidson, Zak's mum, set off from West Street Primary School, Colne, at 9am on Saturday to complete the local leg of 22 miles to Rochdale Town Hall.

Zak was struck down by meningococcal septicaemia and Dexter said: "I wanted to do it for my cousin who died of meningitis and I wanted to raise money for other people.

"I have got good stamina and I trained for it and hopefully my cousin was helping me along too.

"He was quite lively and kind and we were good friends. We used to go to play school together."

The auntie and nephew duo raised more than £550 between them, with Dexter collecting more than £300 from friends, relatives and schoolfriends at Oakhill College, Whalley.

More than 30 walkers from East Lancashire took part in the walk, which will raise money for the Spencer Dayman Meningitis Laboratories.

The national walk has already raised £17,756 in the first six days.

Dexter's mum Catherine Gillen said: "I am very proud of him. Zak was his little friend and he knows exactly what happened to him. Zak's mum does the walk every year and Dexter wanted to do it, but we always thought he was too young to do such a long walk.

"This year because he does a lot of sport at school we thought we would let him do it. We were just keeping our fingers crossed he could make it.

"He trains a lot anyway because he plays football at school and for Langho. He has been doing a lot walking as well. It is usually adults that do the walk so we are really proud that he wanted to do it and arranged all his own sponsorship.

"I have three other children and hopefully when they are old enough they will follow his example.

"For each of their christenings we asked people to donate money to the charity rather than give presents and they have each got a letter to say so which I will be able to show them when they are older."

Donna, of Robin House Lane, Briercliffe, raises money to highlight the illness in the hope of preventing other people going through what she went through.

She said: "I am pleased Dexter's undertook the walk with me. He's always shown an interest and he's just become old enough.

"I want people to be made aware that meningitis is still around and can be fatal so they need to look out for the signs.

"Dexter was really excited about doing the walk because there was only three-and-a-half months between him and Zak so they were close.

"It went very well and we completed 22 miles in just over eight hours. There were no blisters and apart from a little bit of rain everything went fine.

"I would like to thank everyone who sponsored us and I am really pleased that Dexter and I could raise this money for a great cause."