A father-of-two who had to be cut out of his car and airlifted to hospital after a migraine caused him to crash on a remote Norfolk road is running the London Marathon - to pay back the cost of the East Anglian Air Ambulance which came to his aid.

Shaun Button, 31, was on his way home to Harleston, down a rural road near Starston, when the severe migraine attack came on.

Partly blinded and struggling to slow down and pull over, he crashed his car into a tree. The East Anglian Air Ambulance flew to the scene, before firefighters cut him out of the vehicle.

Mr Button, who has two sons - Reece, two and Harvey, seven - was flown to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital for treatment. He has since made it his mission to pay back the £2,270 cost of the air ambulance being called to him.

He said: 'I cost them nearly £2,500 and that's a lot of money to come out because I had a headache! But I can't praise the East Anglian Air Ambulance enough for what they did for me that day.

'They arrived quickly and really looked after me and they took seven minutes to get me to the hospital. They were absolutely brilliant.'

Recalling the crash, which happened in March last year, Mr Button said: 'I remember driving along and feeling this unimaginable pain in my head. I'd suffered from hemiplegic migraines, which are the most severe you can have and which have the same symptoms as a stroke.

'I normally get some tell-tale signs, but that day there was nothing. I just knew one was coming on so I knew I had to slow down and pull over.

'But my vision went and I couldn't see a thing. When I woke up I had crashed in to the tree and the next thing firefighters were cutting me out.

'I couldn't feel my legs or my back but one of the side effects of my migraines is that it can paralyse the left side of my body so I don't think anyone could tell whether I had injured myself in the accident or whether it was just the migraine.

I was therefore flown to hospital for further assessment to find out what was causing the problems.'

After extensive tests, Mr Button has recovered and has not had a migraine attack since. Although he has not been able to return to his former job as a tree surgeon, he now works as a groundsman for Redenhall and Harleston Town Council. And, having taken up running with the Bungay Black Dog Running Club, he and his wife Laura, 32, have secured places in the London Marathon next year - to raise money for the air ambulance.

He said: 'It's great to have the chance to run one of the biggest road races in the world and it will be my way of saying thank you to the air ambulance.'

Pilch Sport in Norwich recently handed over a free pair of Asics Gel-Kinsei trainers for Mr Button to wear in the endurance ace.

To sponsor Shaun,click here and follow him on Twitter at @TeamButtonVLM.