A TEENAGER suffering from an ME-type condition has been raising money for a marathon challenge to help fund research into the disease.

Anna Daffin, from Pinvin, is collecting money for the 2001 Odyssey for ME challenge, which involved a 500-mile horse ride stretching from Dorset to Edinburgh.

Brough Scott, Peter Scudamore and Dr Stephanie Cook, Olympic pentathlon champion, were just some of the top personalities sponsored to take on different legs of the journey.

The six-week event centred around one horse and involved a relay team of riders, including some ME sufferers, taking part in small stretches of the journey.

ME, which is a disease of the brain and the central nervous system, leaves sufferers feeling tired and without energy.

The aim of the event was to continue laboratory tests on the disease and raise awareness and profile of the problem, which has all to often being labelled incorrectly as "Yuppie flu".

And although due to this factor Anna, who is 15, did not take part in the ride, she donated a teddy bear to become an official mascot for the journey and gave the toy a birth date which people were invited to guess for £1 a go.

Anna has also collected money at her local supermarket and canvassed friends and neighbours.

"The fund-raising has gone really well, I've had a great response from family, friends and the public," said Anna.

"I've had people ringing up to sponsor the event and to ask me for advice. We've raised about £175 so far."

The celebrity horse ride, which began at Lulworth Cove in Dorset and finished in Edinburgh, was undertaken by an 11-year-old stallion called Atamekan who was rescued from starvation in Turkmenistan in 1999.

And as rescuer and owner Gill Shuttle also has ME, she was more than happy to donate the horse for the charity challenge.

Any Evening News readers wishing to donate to the cause or buy a date to win the teddy can phone Anna on 01386 554351. For more information on the illness phone 01386 421550.