Sharnie Moore will have more motivation than most when she runs the half marathon in the Dubbo Stampede.
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The Stampede will be held August 27 at Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
Ms Moore, alongside family, friends and other members of the Wagga Wagga community are using the event to raise money for Mia Stewart.
Three-year-old Mia was born with a rare genetic condition known as Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency that left her hip and femur underdeveloped. The condition was detected when Mia was in the womb. The doctors noticed the femur in her left leg wasn’t developing.
Now Mia’s family were hoping to raise $300,000 for surgery in America, Ms Moore said.
“For her to have the best outcome in life she needs to go to America for Paley-Brown modified rotationplasty,” Ms Moore said.
Mia would still require a prosthetic extension, the family friend said, but without the operation Mia would end up with back problems and her other hip would get worse.
To raise the money Ms Moore said she decided she would run a marathon.
“I’ve always wanted to run a marathon but I’ve been losing sleep at the thought of it so I thought I’d run a half marathon first,” she said.
She came across the Dubbo Stampede and put her name down for the 21.1 kilometre Zebra Zoom.
“What better place to run a half marathon then with the zoo and the beautiful scenery? And it sounds like a really family-orientated event,” Ms Moore said.
A lot of people are saying “don’t do it” but the thing is what we’re doing is nothing in comparison to what Mia is going to go through.
- Sharnie Moore
She’ll be joined in the half marathon by another Wagga residents celebrating his weight loss journey which began 12 months ago.
“He wasn’t going to do it and then he said to me “I’ve thought ‘no I can’t do things’ too many times”,” Ms Moore said.
Meanwhile, Ms Moore said her son would be running five kilometres. Friends were also travelling from Queensland to take part, she said.
“A lot of people are saying “don’t do it” but the thing is what we’re doing is nothing in comparison to what Mia is going to go through. She’ll have to be in surgery for 12 hours, and when she gets out she’s going to have to learn to walk again,” Ms Moore said.
At this stage Ms Moore said the surgery was planned for early 2019, before Mia started school. However, if the $300,000 was raised before then it would be moved forward.
Mia’s journey can be followed on Facebook at ‘Mia’s Big Adventure’, while Sharnie and her team can be followed on ‘Run for Mia’.