When Royal Navy Helicopter Engineer Dan Cussans is clocking up the miles as he trains for the Yeovil Marathon on 11 June he has only one clear aim: to raise as much money as possible to support the Yeovil organisation which helped his daughter Josie in her pre-school years.

Dan is based with the Commando Helicopter Force at RNAS Yeovilton in 846 Naval Air Squadron where he works on Merlin helicopters. Dan and his wife came to the Yeovil Opportunity Group Pre-School in 2013 when Josie’s health visitor recognised she had delays in reaching her development milestones and would need additional pre-school support.

Dan says, “We found the support and guidance from the Yeovil Opportunity Group invaluable and it really helped us with our daughter Josie who had such a challenging start in life. Because of this amazing support from YOG, which is a self-funded charity, I am running the Marathon to help to raise awareness and funds for them so they can go on to help other children like Josie and their families.

“Everyone thinks that being in the Royal Navy I must be super fit, but in fact it is quite a big leap to go from the requirements of the Royal Navy’s fitness test of 1.5 miles, followed by a strength test, to completing a full marathon, but my colleagues are training with me and giving me loads of support.”

Kim Duller, the new manager of Yeovil Opportunity Group which operates as a voluntary, committee run specialist pre-school provision and is a registered charity, said, “We are delighted that Dan is running the Yeovil Marathon to raise funds for YOG. Anything that helps to raise the profile of YOG and its work with both pre-school children and families, who have a variety of additional needs, is fantastic and we wish him every success.”