Until last year, Sean Martin had barely run more than the length of Moncton Street in Steveston.

Martin, 36, was fit enough, but chose to keep in shape in a number of other ways.

For the last four months, however, the busy married father of two has been pounding the road in preparation for his first ever marathon in May.

But it's not to lose weight or improve his cardio.

It's all fueled by the fight shown by Martin's youngest daughter, Shaelyn, 5, who was first diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia - an aggressive form of blood cancer - when she was just eight weeks old.

After spending most of her first year of life in hospital and enduring ongoing treatments, Shaelyn was given the all-clear before suffering a relapse.

This time, his precious daughter needed more drastic treatment to keep her alive and major surgery was in the cards.

Doctors recommended a stem cell transplant, something that was previously impossible during her earlier treatment because of her young age, explained Martin, a sales manager for a wholesale florist.

"At the time it was quite an intensive process, scheduling was very tough. We were either coming or going all the time from the hospital.

"She was in the hospital like 24/7 for quite a lot of the time and we do have an older daughter."

It was during Shaelyn's early years that Martin first learned of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada's Team in Training program, the largest and most successful sports training program for charity in Canada.

They have successfully trained more than 550,000 participants to complete endurance events and raised in excess of $1.3 billion for blood cancer research.

"I had seen their pamphlets several times while my daughter was still going through treatment for Leukemia," said Martin from his townhome off No.2 Road and Moncton Street in Steveston.

"I saw them at the hospital and I thought it was a great idea."

Martin was prepared to join the team once his daughter was better.

But one year after Shaelyn, who's now in kindergarten at Homma elementary, had finished treatment, the family was dealt the devastating news of their daughter's relapse.

"We didn't really have a lot of time, and it didn't really fit in the plans to join the (running) team," he added.

After no donor match for the stem cell treatment was found for Shaelyn within the family, they were forced to look into the donor registry.

Thankfully, a perfect match was found in the U.K. and she underwent successful surgery three years ago.

"My daughter has been out of treatment now for a couple years, things have kind of stabilized," Martin said happily.

"We're back to normal, so now I definitely have the time and can give back."

Martin edged closer to his goal of running the 42 kilometres of the BMO Vancouver Marathon in May when he bagged the Scotiabank Half Marathon in June last year, which seemed far enough for him at the time.

Now a fully-fledged member of the LLSC Team in Training, and training himself around Steveston, he reckons he's clocking up close to 100 kilometres a week.

And, remembering those dark days when little Shaelyn needed the help of others to stay alive, Martin wants to start giving back to those who find themselves in similar grave situations as he once was.

"I thought it's definitely time for me to be one of the ones that help generate support."

He's now thrilled to be running in honour of his daughter and to support others in need.

"You can do something that makes you feel really good and you are doing something for a really, really good cause."

Martin set himself a target of $5,000 and, by Wednesday, was hovering around the $4,600 mark.

If you'd like to help push Martin closer to or even breach his fundraising goal, log onto www.tinyurl.com/seanruns42km or scan this page 5 with your smartphone and Layar app to donate.