A NINE-year-old boy, inspired by a poorly relative, walked eight miles from Darwen to Blackburn in aid of the mayor’s kidney appeal.

Danyaal Sidik is Blackburn mayor Salim Mulla’s cousin, and wanted to help after seeing Coun Mulla’s wife, Sayeeda, suffer from kidney disease.

During his stint as mayor, which ends in a few weeks, Coun Mulla is trying to raise enough money to buy two kidney machines for Royal Blackburn Hospital.

Danyaal’s mother Naseema Sidik, 38, said: “Danyaal is very close to Salim and wanted to help as much as he could for the charity.

“He said to me, ‘Mum we need to get those machines at the hospital, it’s not fair’.

“He’s just really excited about the whole cause. He’s very upset that Salim is not going to be the mayor soon!

“He raised a lot of money because he’s such a little boy so people wanted to sponsor him. I was a bit apprehensive about it, but he really wanted to do it.

“He never walks but he’s football crazy, that’s all he does.

“Every week he goes to football and he never misses it, but he even missed football to do the walk.”

Danyaal did the walk alongside Coun Mulla and collected £350 in sponsorship from friends and family.

Coun Mulla said: “I think it’s great that he’s such a young boy, and he walked all that way, and he’s raised so much money on his own.

Mrs Sidik said: “Afterwards he was running around, he was just so enthusiastic. When we got home he had a bubble bath and said, ‘Mum, my legs are hurting now!’”