AFTER flying into enemy territory in Iraq to rescue wounded troops, Flight Lieutenant Kevin Harris, based at RAF Benson, received one of the military’s top bravery awards.

But the helicopter pilot needed a different kind of courage to support his daughter Grace after she was born with life-threatening heart problems.

The Merlin pilot even had to postpone receiving his Distinguished Flying Cross from the Queen to help care for his daughter when she went into hospital.

Now almost two, she has undergone a series of major heart operations and her father, 30, is planning a 60-mile run to raise cash for the hospitals which treated her.

Flt Lt Harris lives at the air base with his wife Naomi, 32, who is expecting their second child, and Grace, 20 months. He has served in the RAF since 2001 and has also flown helicopters in Afghanistan.

The pilot’s daughter needed open-heart surgery at Great Ormond Street Hospital, London, just four days after being born. She needed further surgery at the hospital after doctors at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, spotted a lack of oxygen in her blood.

Flt Lt Harris said: “She was only given a ten per cent chance of making the journey, and en route she did start to fade, but the team on board did a great job and got her to the hospital.

“Yet again, despite the odds, she made it through the op.”

The youngster underwent a third operation in May last year to close holes between the left and right chambers of the heart.

Flt Lt Harris said: “I felt a great debt of gratitude for the work that had been done in saving my daughter’s life on three occasions.

“So, when I was in Afghanistan earlier this year, I decided to run between the two hospitals to raise money for the two hospitals.”

In 2008, Flt Lt Harris completed seven tours of Iraq as part of Operation TELIC, based at Basrah air station. He has also completed two tours in Afghanistan, based at Camp Bastion.

In 2009, he became a qualified helicopter instructor teaching new pilots with 28 (AC) Squadron at RAF Benson.

Flt Lt Harris said: “I’ve done a few half marathons but I have never run further than 15 miles. It could take me about 14 hours to complete the run but I am confident I will be okay because I am very fit.”

He said the family was looking to the future with optimism that their daughter was in the care of caring and skilled doctors. He said: “Grace may need further operations in the future but at the moment she is fine and hospital staff are confident that she will be able to lead a normal life in the long term.”

He will run on Sunday, May 1, between the John Radcliffe and Ormond Street hospitals, via the A40, in a bid to raise £10,000.

In April 2009, Flt Lt Harris had to postpone picking up his DFC from the Queen because of his daughter’s second operation. He received the honour four months later.

He was honoured for his actions between March 26 and 28, 2008, when, while based at Basrah air station, Flt Lt Harris’s Merlin rescued more than 30 injured servicemen under indirect enemy fire.

Sarah Vaccari, a spokesman for Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “It is incredibly inspiring to hear how Kevin is planning to thank the medical teams at Great Ormond Street and here at the John Radcliffe for their care of Grace. We are always so grateful for the lengths that parents go to with their fundraising when they and their children have been through so many difficult times.”

Sponsor Flt Lt Harris at the website: justgiving.com/JR2GOSH