A SOUTHAMPTON man has overcome his lifelong fear of water in order to take part in a race in memory of a friend’s niece.

Kevin Stokes, a postman from Sholing, is competing in a Tough Mudder event in September in honour of Corah Slaney, who died within seven months of being diagnosed with mitochondrial disease at the age of 16.

“She kept getting tired, which wasn’t like her, so they took her for tests and she went downhill and died within a year,” says Kevin.

“She lived in Nottingham and I only met her once when she was younger, but she was such a funny girl, she stuck in my head and I wanted to do something for her and her family.

“She went from a 16-year-old girl who was full of life to a girl who struggled to breathe and couldn’t even hug her parents,” he adds.

“I want to raise money and awareness of this disease because unfortunately there is no cure for it.”

Mitochondria are specialised compartments in every cell of the body except red blood cells. They are responsible for creating almost all of the energy needed by the body to sustain life and support organ function.

Mitochondrial diseases result from failures of the mitochondria, which means less and less energy is generated within the cell. Cell injury and cell death follow. If this process is repeated throughout the body, whole organ systems begin to fail.

The condition hit the headlines recently after infantile onset encephalomyopathy mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome caused the death of baby Charlie Gard, but Kevin feels more must be done to raise awareness of it.

“Corah and her family went through such hard and tough times that it seemed only fitting I should do something tough to raise awareness, hence why I chose Tough Mudder.”

Kevin, 43, is a postman at Shirley Southampton Delivery Office, and walks more than 90 miles a week, but knew he had to do some proper training to get into shape.

He also had to conquer his fear of water as the race includes water obstacles.

“I fell backwards into a paddling pool when I was little and have been petrified of water ever since,” he said.

“When we were supposed to go swimming at school I would be sick from fear.”

Kevin had one-to-one swimming lessons and has not only overcome his fear of water but actually enjoys swimming now.

He has also joined a gym and been seeing a personal trainer, Dan Brazier of Limitless Training, who has competed in two World’s Toughest Mudder competitions.

“It’s not just physical exercise Dan’s helped me with,” says Kevin.

“It’s a complete lifestyle change, making sure I eat healthy. It has worked because since I’ve started my training I have lost more than three stone in weight, and that’s three stone I won’t have to carry around the course with me!”

Kevin has set himself a target of raising £250 for the Children’s Mitochondrial Disease Network.

To make a donation, visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kevin-stokes2