DIABETES sufferer Alexa Scott-Dalgleish, nine, was joined by her family when she put her best foot forward to raise funds for research into the condition on Sunday.

Alexa, who lives in Enford, near Pewsey, has to give herself insulin injections three times a day and test her blood four times a day.

On Sunday she was joined by her father and mother, Hamish and Jenny and brother Guy, 11, for a four-mile sponsored walk around Newbury in aid of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

The family hopes to collect about £9,500 from relatives, friends and business contacts of Mr and Mrs Scott-Dalgleish.

The American-founded JDRF, now a global charity, provides support for families with children with diabetes and is also funding research into the condition and hoping to find an eventual cure or treatment that will remove the need for injections.

Mrs Scott-Dalgleish said: "The incidence of diabetes in children under the age of five years has doubled in the last ten years and they do not know why."

Alexa, who attends Farleigh School near Andover, will have to inject herself daily for the rest of her life unless new treatments are discovered said her mother.

Mr Scott-Dalgleish is also diabetic and has to give himself injections four times daily.

About 300 people took part in Sunday's four-mile walk at the Parasampia Golf and Country Club in Newbury.