An inspirational young boy from Feltham who turned five celebrated his birthday a little differently by running a mile and raising thousands of pounds for charity.

Aarav Sapra of Wigley Road was joined by family and friends from the start line outside his home to the town centre, where Mayor of Hounslow Corinna Smart were among those who helped him mark his special day on Wednesday (6).

After crossing the finishing line, instead of opening a pile of presents Aarav was shaking a bucket and collecting donations from a cake sale outside Asda, boosting his total funds raised to well over £2,000 for Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mum Komal Sapra, 30, dad Rohat Arora, 36, 18-month-old sister Aarya, and grandparents Roshanlal Piasa, 67, and wife Ramma, 60 were all part of the race.

Boy celebrates birthday doing charity run. ASDA Feltham. TW13 4AU. Feltham. Aarav Sapra, five with his mum Komal Sapra, dad Rohat Arora COR and sister Aarya Sapra, 18 months.

Mrs Sapra said: "It wasn't an individual event in the end. People were stopping us on the route and asking what we were doing.

"Some people had written Happy Birthday Aarav on the back of their t-shirts.

"The cake sale and raffle also did really well.

"He (Aarav) loved it. He spoke to the Mayor and was selling cakes, balloons and raffles.

"People were asking me how to go about doing this type of thing for charity and our aim was to do this and help inspire others."

A number of stores in The Centre in Feltham bundled in and helped including Specsavers who donated money as well as presenting Aarav with prescription sunglasses, Natwest, Asda and Starbucks had donation buckets in-store and for the raffle gift cards from Nandos, Next, and Matalan.

Online donations have mounted to £1,600 and more than £600 on the day taking the total to around £2,200.

Donations at www.justgiving.com/Komal-Sapra/