THE daughter of a Saints defender who made nearly 200 appearances for his team is putting her own athletic prowess to the test in the name of her beloved dad.

Southampton footballer Kevin Moore died in 2013 at the age of just 55 from a rare form of dementia.

Now, three years on his daughter Sophie is joining with a group of school friends to take on a fundraising challenge.

Sophie - who was only 28 when she lost her dad - and her team who have known each other since they were 12-years-old will each run 100km to raise money for Alzheimer Research UK.

The sprint is part of the charity’s latest campaign, Running Down Dementia and the team have already raised nearly £1,000.

Media director Sophie was devastated when her father was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2007, and was forced to watch his rapid decline.

She said: “I’ve known my friends since we were 12, and they all knew Dad. His symptoms started in his late 40s, around 2005 when I was in my second year of university.

“He’d been made redundant from his job as a training ground manager. It felt like a very odd thing to happen as he’d been in the job years so it was very out of the blue. He would occasionally bash his car and more and more frequently when he knew he had to be somewhere he failed to be on time.

“Those were the first warning signs but when I turned 21 I moved to Australia. I knew a few things would change but I was very shocked ten months later when he came to visit. I felt like I didn’t recognise him anymore.”

After time at The White house Day centre in Curdridge, a rapid decline meant he was moved to a permanent care home where he died on April 29 – his birthday.

“My mum Mandy, my brother and I just want to get his story out there as much as possible. He would head the ball a lot during football games and we wonder how much of an effect that had. There needs to be more research into frontotemporal dementia, it’s such a complicated disease.”

Moore was remembered by Saints fans as a committed centre half and for scoring at Wembley, in the 1992 Zenith Data Systems Cup final.

Former colleague Francis Benali paid tribute to Moore at the time of his death calling him “a fabulous teammate, a strong and tough defender, and an incredible header of the ball”.

Kenneth Foreman, Sporting Events Manager for Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: “We can’t thank the Ford Girls enough for raising money through Running Down Dementia.”

“I’d also like to thank Sophie for sharing her story about her father.”

Sophie and her team the ‘Ford Girls’ are from Chandler’s Ford and are currently in second place on the Running Down Dementia teams leaderboard.

To donate to their team’s challenge go to https://running-down-dementia.everydayhero.com/uk/ford-girls.