THURROCK youngster Noah Mayers completed his 81K running 999 challenge to raise funds for the NHS this morning (Friday, 29 May) and got a tribute from Essex Fire Service along the way.

For the past nine days eight-year-old Noah - a pupil at Horndon on the Hill Primary School - has been running nine kilometres each morning with his dad, Chris, in the run up to his ninth birthday tomorrow.

He has been raising sponsorship via a Just Giving page for NHS charities and has raised more than £1,700 so far - that's almost six times his target and there is still time for his supporters to push it over the £2k mark!

Along the way today, as Noah and Chris completed their ninth and final run through Fobbing and Corringham, residents and members of the family's church (Corringham Evangelical) turned out with banners along the way to support him and when he got to Corringham Fire Station, watch manager Geoff Wheel and the crew had arranged a surprise as he got to run through a tribute spray - Watch here.

Geoff said: "We wanted to show our support for Noah's efforts and helped to make his run a bit cooler today on what is a very hot day.

"We're really proud of Noah and cheered him on today, we hope he has a fantastic birthday."