Southport dads emotional thank-you for playground campaign in memory of daughter

The father of one of the girls killed at a dance class in Southport last year says his local community has been "so kind" and "amazing with us" as he prepares to run a fundraising marathon.

Sergio Aguiar is raising money to build a new playground, including a performance stage and library, at Churchtown Primary School, where his daughter Alice was a pupil.

Sergio, whose daughter was nine when she died, told BBC Breakfast: "I feel like were doing something great. In the next few years, thousands of children will enjoy that playground."

He is running the London Marathon next month as part of a community effort to raise £250,000 for the project.

"We always said that the school felt like a second home to Alice," said Sergio. "She had a 100% attendance record last year – she never missed a day."

The playground will also be dedicated to Bebe King, who died in the same attack aged six, as she had previously attended the school.

Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, was also killed at the dance class in July last year. Axel Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced in January to a minimum of 52 years in prison for their murders.

Sergio, who is the first of the victims parents to give a live interview, added: "[Alice] would be very proud of us [creating] this playground. I can imagine how happy she would be to see it. I wish she could have enjoyed it."

With six weeks until the marathon, Sergios training efforts appear to be going well after undertaking an 18-mile run recently.

He has even started taking ice baths at home to aid his preparation. He said: "I think it is harder than the training!"

Joining him on the run will be Jinnie Payne, the head teacher at Churchtown Primary School, who said the building of the playground would be completed by September if they could reach the fundraising target.

"That is [the start of] Alices classmates final year at Churchtown and they would have that playground to play in … the legacy of Alice and Bebe," she told BBC Breakfast.

As of Saturday morning, more than half of the fundraising target has been achieved with individual donations ranging from a few pounds to £10,000 given by an anonymous individual.

"People are so kind," Sergio said, thanking the community for their support. "They come up to me and say well done, the playground will be amazing."

Footballers Diogo Jota and Beto, who play for Liverpool and Everton respectively, sent surprise messages of encouragement via the BBC to Sergio - who settled in the UK after moving from Portugal.

Beto, speaking in Portuguese, said: "Hello Sergio, hello Mrs Payne. Beto here from Everton. I want to send you a message to wish you best of luck for the London Marathon. What you are doing is fantastic and we hope the training is going well. You have all of the support from everyone at Everton. Take care and best of luck."

Jota told Sergio: "Hello Sergio, I just heard you were about to run the London Marathon for an amazing cause. We are all with you here at Liverpool, so go on and do your best!"

Sergio, smiling, thanked them for the messages and revealed he had a Jota shirt at home because he is a Porto fan, where Jota played before moving to the Premier League in 2017.