A HEALTH worker is continuing a run of charity fundraisers to pay back the research organisation whose work helped save his son.

Darlington Primary Care Trust nursing assessor John Conlon is training for next month's Great North Run to raise funds for The National Kidney Research Fund.

The 45-year-old, of Willington, County Durham, feels compelled to help the charity since his son, Thomas, was diagnosed with a rare kidney disorder that could have left him needing a transplant.

He said: "He was diagnosed as suffering from focal segmented glomarial sclerosis - the same thing rugby player Jonah Lomu has - and we were told there was a 70 per cent of chance of this leading to kidney failure.

"They put him on steroids and he simply blew up so they tried a cancer drug but that didn't work either.

"My wife Karen and I were thinking that we would have to give up one of our kidneys.

"Then as a last resort they tried him on the organ anti-rejection drug cyclosporine. After that it was a case of waiting for his kidneys to fail - but it worked."

Now 14, Thomas is healthy and ready to start running events with his father.

Last year, Mr Conlon completed the Great North Run, raising more than £600 for charity and the gym his ten-year-old daughter Rebecca attends.