A FUNDRAISING father has raised over £500 for a heart charity through sales of his debut book.

Mark Ind the author of the book, Fifty Days of Lockdown, lives in Chandler’s Ford.

His book went on sale on November 13 and is a personal account of his families experiences throughout the first coronavirus lockdown.

Through keeping a journal, which he added to every day, Mark was able to recall, not just his families experiences during that period, but also the major events that took place, such as when Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, announced lockdown.

Mark and his family have raised more than £150k in the past, towards cardiac charities in the region, in an ongoing act of gratitude for the care and support given to Mark’s son, Alex, who has lived with a serious heart condition since birth.

Alex’s story of living with this condition features in the book, which has now helped add to the families overall fundraising sum as a percentage of the profits have gone to Wessex Heartbeat.

Having sold over 200 copies so far, raising over £500 for the charity, Mark hopes the book will continue to be a success.

He said: “I was never an author so to have sold that many books, I’m pretty pleased. It’s certainly lived up to expectations, if not exceeded them.

“Alex is really pleased with it, he’s very supportive of people buying it and has been spreading the word himself.

“He’s very proud of his achievement and the story the books tells about that and hopes it inspires other people with similar conditions.”

Alex, who had never run more than the length of a cricket pitch, spent a month in Lockdown training for a charity 10K run.

One year to the day after his fourth round of major open heart surgery, he completed the challenge, raising £3,000.

Mark is now planning to write a second book and still continues to take a journal of his families experiences.

Fifty Days of Lockdown is being sold on Amazon and was published by Southampton TV presenter and broadcaster, Michael Kurn.