AN inspirational man who gave up a career in a high-end supermarket to launch a charity to help disabled and disadvantaged children get into sport is on the road to raising £1million.

Chris Read, of Barnard Castle, set up the A Smile for A Child charity seven years ago while on sabbatical from his career at Waitrose and as a keen marathon runner, decided to give something back.

The charity gives out grants of between £500 and £1,000 and larger ones where needed which enables disabled or disadvantaged children or clubs to buy specialist sports equipment that allows them to participate in activities other children might take for granted.

This has been made possible through Mr Read’s non-stop fundraising and charity challenges which include everything from bag packing to running along the Great Wall of China.

To date the part-time sports coach and personal trainer has ran more than 100 marathons and helped 42 different organisations and 20 families from the local areas in and around Barnard Castle last year alone.

Mr Read runs the small charity from his home while also travelling to his London ‘office’, otherwise known as his mother’s living room.

By keeping running costs down this allowed the charity to give away £17,000 in its first year which has slowly snowballed, allowing Mr Read to donate £131,000 to good causes last year.

To mark his 50th birthday in November 2015, he also completed a successful year-long campaign to raise £50,000 by completing 50 challenges.

But after working out his accounts, the dad-of-two said he was shocked to discover he was just £60,000 away from surpassing the £1m mark, a figure he is confident he can raise by the end of the year.

“The charity was going to be something that I was going to do on a part-time basis while I started up the sports coaching but I never thought we would be anywhere near £1m,” he said.

He said the success of the charity was largely down to his family including wife, Nicole, and children Lauren and Ben, who have always supported him.

“We made this decision as a family and we all help with collecting,” he said. “It’s a family effort.”

For more information about the charity or to get involved visit asmileforachild.org or call Mr Read on 07904448296.