Williamstown’s Avril Hannah-Jones will be running with her family in The Age Run Melbourne next month to raise money for Amaze, formerly Autism Victoria.
She will be running for her niece Maddie, 4, who has autism.
“When she was approaching two, she wasn’t walking or talking,” Ms Hannah-Jones said.
“So my sister-in-law, who’s a nurse, took her to be assessed and she was assessed as having autism. It was a real shock to everybody.
“She’s just amazing, the way she has improved so much with the help of the therapy she’s getting. She’s walking and talking.
“But it’s going to be a problem for her for the rest of her life so anything we can do to help, we’ll do, even if it means me running, which is not what I do naturally.
“If people can learn more about autism I think it would be helpful because it’s very hard, particularly for parents of young autistic children.
“Having more understanding of what they go through would be helpful.”
Team Maddie is running five kilometres on July 26 in a bid to raise $1000. If you want to donate, visit runmelbourne.2015everydayhero.com/au/avril.
For information on The Age Run Melbourne, visit www.runmelbourne.com.au
