A DETERMINED dad will be going the extra mile this year to give his paralysed daughter the independence she craves.

Two-year-old Isla James has a rare condition called Arnold-Chiari 2, which causes the lower part of the brain to push down into the spinal canal. It impacts her breathing, eating and swallowing.

She uses a ZipZac wheelchair to get around. Dad Lee says it makes her "the life and soul of the party". Without it, he added "she shrinks and fades away".

Lee and his wife Amy are now looking to raise the £2,800 needed to buy Isla the bespoke, lighweight wheelchair which will help her flourish at home and at school as she grows.

And in a bid to raise the money Lee will be completing running challenges every month – including the gruelling 60-mile Race to the Stones ultramarathon in July.

The Mustang Way couple had their lives turned upside down during Amy's pregnancy.

James, 34, told the Adver: “At 20 weeks we found out she was going to have problems it gave us a pretty bleak outlook.

“Doctors tried predicting how she was going to be, but we asked them to give us the worst-case scenario so we could just take it as it comes."

Isla inhaled her own fecal material during birth and was in a critical condition for the first 48 hours of her life.

She then faced surgery at just a couple of days old after she was diagnosed with spina bifida. The bottom of her spine was amputated, leaving her paralysed from the hips down.

Further operations followed, one of which saw a shunt put in her brain to drain out the excess fluid.

Lee said: “I couldn’t possibly put into words what it was like to go through that.

"It’s like an out-of-body experience, you’re going to a hospital bed to go see a baby you can’t hold.

“It’s a really scary time, something I couldn’t imagine where life would take us at the time. We weren’t sure if we were going home with a daughter or not."

He added: "But after multiple surgeries rolls a girl who doesn’t let anything faze her – happy, cheeky and lets face it, a girl that knows what she wants and has daddy wrapped exactly where she wants him."

Lee has already completed the Great Bristol Half Marathon and the Royal Wootton Bassett Lungbuster nine-mile run.

Any extra money raised will be given to a woman the James's know who is in a similar situation.

“I don’t run and I will just do my best and to keep the wheels turning on raising awareness of these conditions,” Lee said. "I'm truly overwhelmed by people's kindness and generosity. Seeing this level of support so far just makes me more determined."

To donate visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lee-james-1