For one Bunbury family the devastating effects of brain cancer will forever be ingrained after losing their son to the disease.
Jennie Calgaret and Daniel Moyle had to say goodbye to their seven-year-old boy Lesane in 2015, three years later, together with their four other children, they’re participating in 22 million steps to raise awareness and money for childhood brain cancer.
Ms Calgaret said it was a cause very close to the family’s heart.
“In 2015 our son passed away- it’s been three years but we weren’t ready to do anything before now,” she said.
“We heard about 22 million steps and thought it was a great thing to do.”
In 2013, 19-year-old Jimmy Harrington set off from Adelaide on a walk around Australia to raise funds and awareness for the Brainchild Foundation and children with brain and spinal cord tumours.
His journey took 378 days and covered approximately 16,500km's, which equated to approximately 22 million steps.
Now his walk is replicated Australia-wide with individuals and groups collectively retracing Jimmy’s steps each May as part of brain tumour awarness month.
“We all still talk about Lesane – he went into a coma on his seventh birthday, just after midnight and then 11 days later he passed away – it was horrible,” Ms Calgaret said.
“He was just an amazing little kid, everything he went through he was always smiling – we told him right at the beginning that he was going to have some hard days but just to find one thing each day to smile about and he’d always say the same thing to us whenever we were having our moments.
“We initially tried to walk half a million steps but we’ve already passed a million as a family – we’re hoping to try and reach two million steps but we’ll see what happens.
“I know a lot of people when our son got sick didn’t know that brain cancer was even really a thing but they were really shocked to find out that kids got it, so I think it’s really important to raise awareness.”
For more information or to support the family’s campaign visit jimmys22millionsteps.everydayhero.com/au/JennieandDaniel.