A five-year-old girl is set to take part in a 5k (3.1 mile) Santa run to help people suffering from the same illness as her mum.

Maddie is to take on the Exeter City Santa Run for the charity Crohn’s and Colitis on Sunday, and said: “I want to raise money so I can help poorly people like mummy to get better.”

Her mother, Ellis, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis when she was 19, when she suffered from a toxic megacolon and was given just a 20% chance of survival.

Despite living a “relatively normal life”, Ellis still struggles with colitis 18 years later, and has just undergone a major surgery to remove scar tissue from her colon.

Ellis said Maddie was already a keen runner and had taken part in Parkruns with her dad, Mark, since May.

But when Ellis was readmitted to hospital for colitis related issues in September, Maddie asked her dad to contact the Exeter City Santa Run to ask if she could take part and raise money.

“My husband Mark and I are unbelievably proud of Maddie – she even asked to donate some of her own money because she wants to help people like me not be in pain.” Ellis said.

Ellis said she had learnt about Crohn’s disease at school, but not much about colitis, so when she first became unwell she did not recognise what was happening.

She said she worked as a primary school teacher and needed to find a child appropriate way to explain to her class that she would be absent while recovering from her operation.

She said inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) was a “taboo subject”, that needed to be “talked about more.” and she was part of a local campaign.

“Exeter City player Jack Fitzwater spoke out about his colitis journey; he is working closely with his and my doctor on a campaign called Know Your Sh*t, where people can send off samples to screen for IBD,” she said.

“My hope is that in years to come, more people will recognise the signs early, more people will feel confident seeking help, and that we continue to learn more about these diseases.

“It’s so important to speak up when something doesn’t feel right in your body.”