MELANIE Campbell will be running for a cause close to her heart when she joins a team of colleagues and friends in a half-marathon later this year.

They will be raising money for the National Kidney Research Fund (NKRF) and Mrs Campbell knows just why the organisation's work is so important.

Two of her four children need life-saving kidney transplants.

Thirteen-year-olds triplets Luke and Ashley have been waiting 17 months for their much-needed operations.

The triplets - they also have a sister Sinead and an older brother, Gavin - were four when they were diagnosed with familial juvenile nephro-nephritis, a kidney-wasting disease.

Since then they have been on constant medication. For the last year have been having peritoneal dialysis which means they have to be attached to machines for eight hours each night.

Mrs Campbell works at the Patent Office in Newport and suggested that a colleague who had entered the Cardiff half-marathon should do it in aid of NKRF.

Her workmate then asked Mrs Campbell to take part and at first she rejected the idea.

"She kept nagging me all day and I said I would do it so we roped in a few more and now there are 11 of us," said the 35-year-old, who lives in Rogerstone with her husband, Steven, and their children.

"NKRF help us every day of Luke and Ashley's life. I totally believe in research - Luke and Ashley probably wouldn't be here without it."

It is not the first time she has raised money for the charity.

She completed a parachute jump while living in Germany and abseiled down the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, with her sister Julia which together realised more than £2,000 for NKRF.

The half-marathon is in Cardiff in October and Mrs Campbell is already in training. "I do two runs a week of six miles and I have just started swimming."