Mother-Daughter Duo Take On The Premmie Marathon Challenge

IMAGE: Elle Coate and her daughter Dempsee will clock up 100 kms in The Premmie Marathon Challenge in November to raise money for neonatal equipment for hospitals.

Almost 11 years ago, Dempsee Coate was one of the premmie babies that she is now trying to help by taking on The Premmie Marathon Challenge with her mother Elle.

Elle said Dempsee arrived at 32 weeks.

“She weighed 1.6 kg; half the size of a normal baby,” Elle said.

When she saw The Premmie Marathon Challenge, Elle wanted to get involved.

“There’s so much involved, from the nurses to the nutrient bags they feed the babies, ventilators and humidicribs,” Elle said.

“I mentioned it to Demps and she said, “Let’s do it”.

“Dempsee is the eldest of five, the youngest is five weeks old.”

“We struggled a bit to have our first child and then she arrived early.”

“It is something that is very close to us.”

“Dempsee is really excited.”

The duo are aiming to run the 100 kms, but participants in the marathon can tackle the distance in whatever way they choose - running, walking, riding, skating.

“Dempsee loves roller skating so she said she might even roller-skate her 100 kms,” Elle said.

“We’re doing 100 kms each, so 200 kms.

We do love fitness and the outdoors.”

“Now that the weather’s warming up, we thought it would be a good time to get outdoors.”

“We’re determined and committed to completing the challenge.”

Mother and daughter will be doing some early morning walks, but if the weather is poor they’ll take it indoors to their treadmills.

The community has already gotten behind the pair, surprising and delighting them with their generosity.

Within 24 hours of posting their intention to complete the challenge, they had already raised over half of their $500 goal.

“I think the last time I checked it was $348,” Elle said.

“That’s been really awesome.”

“If we reach our goal, we’ll bump it up.”

The Premmie Marathon Challenge is run during November, Prematurity Awareness Month and monies raised will fund muchneeded neonatal equipment for Australian hospitals and improve and save the lives of one in ten babies born prematurely.

If you would like to support Elle and Dempsee visit https://www.runningforprematurebabies.com/fundraisers/ellecoate

At the time of writing this article, Elle and Dempsee had already exceeded their original goal, raising $598.