Running for Prems

Earlybirds last sat down to chat to Sophie Smith, founder of Running For Premature Babies, in May 2020, a time when Covid was on the rise and many of their major fundraising events were unfortunately yet understandably cancelled. 

This didn’t stop her passion and drive and the team turned their focus to a Virtual Run which raised over $80,000 to fund critical neonatal research at the Royal Hospital for Women.

We were lucky enough to touch base again with Sophie to hear about what they have been up to over the past two years, their goals for the future and all about their next major event, the ‘Premmie Marathon Challenge’. 

We hope you enjoy learning more about her and the incredible work she does.



Hi Sophie. The last couple of years have been tough for so many, how has your charity adapted and what things have remained in place now that things have settled down into a new ‘normal’? 

Wow so much has happened since we last chatted. Our Running for Premature Babies Virtual Run feels like it was 100 years ago now! That was our first event after having to ‘pivot’ due to Covid meaning all in-person running events were cancelled.

After the success of our Virtual Run we came up with a new concept – the ‘Premmie Marathon Challenge’ that we held during the month of November, to tie in with the globally recognised ‘Prematurity Awareness Month’ and ‘World Prematurity Day’ on 17 November.

The concept was simple – register to complete a 42km marathon in November, in ‘a day, a week or a month’. The idea was that you could split the distance up into as many smaller chunks as you like and complete the kms within your chosen time frame. It was free to sign up, and anyone who raised $75 received a shiny Premmie Marathon Challenge medal at the end of the month, and anyone who raised $200 would also receive a free running singlet.

To our delight, the Premmie Marathon Challenge took off, with 500 people completing it in that first year of November 2020, and 1000 people taking part in November 2021. We had people take part from every single State and Territory in Australia, and also quite a few people take part from overseas! In November 2020 the challenge raised $200,000 and in 2021 it raised a huge $340,000!

This provided life saving equipment for NICUs and Special Care Nurseries in the Northern Territory, Queensland, NSW and South Australia!

Now we’re gearing up for our third annual Premmie Marathon Challenge and we’ve set ourselves a massive target to find 5000 people to participate! We’ve also changed the format to make it more exciting and accessible to anyone, regardless of fitness ability. This year you can choose your chosen marathon distance between a 21km half marathon, a 42km marathon, a 100km Ultra Marathon, a 200km Double Ultra Marathon and a 300km Triple Ultra Marathon! You get the whole month of November to complete the distance and you don’t have to run! You can choose to run, walk, cycle, roll or swim. We have a cool app coming out in time for November, where you can track your km and stay connected with all the other participants. We’re hoping this will make the challenge extra fun and engaging! We’re hoping this year’s Premmie Marathon Challenge will raise a whopping $500,000.

This year it’s also been really lovely to return to in-person running events too. So far this year we’ve entered teams into the SMH Half Marathon and City2Surf in Sydney, The Brisbane Marathon Festival, the Gold Coast Marathon Festival, Adelaide’s City to Bay, The Run Melbourne and the Melbourne Marathon Festival. 

In the past 12 months we’ve also had people take on some incredible challenges to raise funds for Running for Premature Babies. One of the Bondi lifeguards Quinn Darragh and his best mate Luke Stewart swam the English channel for us, to celebrate Quinn’s son who was born prematurely and used equipment donated by our charity, and a young dad from Orange, Glenn Atkinson, pushed a double buggy from Orange hospital over the Blue Mountains to the Royal Hospital for Women, the two hospitals that cared for his own twins following their premature birth. With funds raised from both these challenges we were able to provide neonatal equipment for the Alice Springs hospital, the Royal Hospital for Women, the Orange hospital and the Bathurst Hospital. 

Earlier this year our charity hit some significant milestones. We reached $5 million since our charity began in 2007, and we donated our 100th piece of life-saving equipment! It’s estimated that over 8000 babies have used this equipment, and some wouldn’t have survived without it.

Other big news for Running for Premature Babies is that earlier this year I made the decision to move aside as Managing Director of the charity to make way for someone amazing to take the lead and steer our charity into its next phase of growth. Gary Trenaman joined in August as CEO and Cassie Ferugia has joined the team as our admin and marketing assistant. I’m continuing to work on the team as Founder, and I’m so excited about where we can together take the charity into the future. Our goal is to grow to support more hospitals in need around Australia so that every one of the 26000 babies born prematurely in our country each year have access to the very best neonatal equipment, and the best chance of survival.

Your beautiful first-born triplet sons, Henry, Jasper and Evan would have been 16 this year. Other than the work you do every day in their memory and honour, how else do you celebrate their lives?

Sophie with Jasper

Henry, Jasper and Evan are very much a part of our lives today 16 years on. Their photos sit on our walls alongside those of my living children, Owen and Harvey. We talk about them often and celebrate their birthdays with special dinners and homemade cakes with candles and mark their anniversaries by visiting their grave. Owen and Harvey make cards for their brothers and write them sweet (and sometimes funny) notes. (On their 13th birthday Harvey asked ‘Is there puberty in Heaven?’!!!) My husband Ash passed away 6 years ago and we feel comforted thinking about Ash in Heaven looking after our three little boys. 

Your younger two boys Owen and Harvey have grown up with Running for Premature Babies and must be very proud of the work you do, how do they like to get involved? 

Owen and Harvey have grown up with Running for Premature Babies so it really is a part of all our lives. They love our annual Kids Fun Run which we hold on the weekend of their brothers’ birthday, and they’ve joined me in the City2Surf and in the relay of the SMH Half Marathon, as well as taken on the Premmie Marathon Challenge since it began. Running for Premature Babies is literally all around us and is a part of all our lives. 

This month you’ve held your Running for Premature Babies Kids Fun Run in locations across Australia. Congratulations on raising just shy of your $50,000 goal. How will these funds be spent?

It had been 3 years since our last Kids Fun Run and this year’s one was extra special as it was the first time we held it in more than one location! We had Fun Runs in Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast on the same day, and this month we’ll also be holding a Fun Run in Wagga. The $50,000 raised have been put towards other fundraising, providing a humidicrib for Monash hospital in Melbourne, a 12-lead ECG machine for Casey hospital, a giraffe humidicrib for the Royal Hospital for Women, and a Neonatal Monitor for Redcliffe hospital in Queensland. 

Your newest ambassador is Lachy Gillespie, The Purple Wiggle, whose own twins spent time in the NICU. What impact does having someone like Lachy on board have?

Lachy is amazing and such a passionate supporter of our cause. It’s been wonderful having Lachy involved as he not only runs with us and fundraises for us, but he’s inspired hundreds of his fans to join us too. He’s appeared on national television with me several times to talk about the charity, and each year he creates a team in the Premmie Marathon Challenge. Anyone can join his team in this year’s event, it’s called ‘Lachy’s Team’ and he’ll send you videos through the month to keep you updated on how his challenge is going and to inspire you to keep going too! We are so lucky to have such a wonderful ambassador! As well as the support of Lachy, we also have amazing support from The Wiggles, who have made us some really fun videos encouraging people to support our cause.

Do you have a favourite event and what is your favourite aspect of the work you do at Running for Premature Babies?

The favourite aspect of my work is when I get to meet the families and children who have directly benefited from the equipment we’ve provided. I also love to see people joining our runs to celebrate their children who have been born prematurely, both those with children who have survived and those who run to celebrate their babies who have passed away. I’m passionate about celebrating all prematurely born children, living and lost. 

What advice do you have for someone who is interested in running for this cause but don’t consider themselves a ‘runner’? 

You absolutely DON’T need to be a runner to take part in Running for Premature Babies. The marathon festivals we are involved in have distances from full marathons right down to 3km walks, and everyone is welcome regardless of whether they run or walk! And our Premmie Marathon Challenge is for everyone too. You don’t have to run!!! In our Premmie Marathon Challenge last year our youngest participant was 2 years old and our oldest was 95!!

But for those who aren’t ‘a runner’ but would like to be, we equally love to inspire people to run their first ever 10km, or half marathon or full marathon!! With Running for Premature Babies it really doesn’t matter how fast you go – we encourage and celebrate all participants from the very front to the very back of the pack! I always remind our runners that when they are tired in a race to remember that they have my little Henry, Jasper and Evan’s handprints on the backs of their running singlets, and they will push them up the hills and over the finish line!

You’ve raised more than $5 million for lifesaving neonatal equipment and research to date, is there any new equipment or research projects underway that you can give an update on?

One thing we are particularly proud of is our donation of a neonatal ambulance in Queensland. This ambulance safely transports sick and premature babies from regional hospitals around Northern NSW and Southern Queensland to Brisbane for Neonatal Intensive Care, and it also transports babies home again to hospitals closer to home when they are strong enough. We’re also proud of our support of regional hospitals in NSW, meaning that more babies can stay closer to home rather than have to be transported far from home. We are proud of our expansion this year into Victoria, supporting hospitals in Victoria.

We have provided Nava ventilators to the Royal Hospital for Women and the Flinders in Adelaide – these are technologically advanced ventilators that can support the smallest and sickest babies. I know that if these had been available in 2016 they would have saved the life of my baby Jasper.

Thank you Sophie for your time and insights into the wonderful work you do in making such a significant impact and difference in thousands of premature and sick babies' lives. 

If you have been touched by prematurity or simply want to support this important cause, there are many ways you can get involved, you can: 

All funds raised will help give critically ill and premature babies a better chance of survival.

Find out more about Running for Premature Babies here:

Website: www.runningforprematurebabies.com
Instagram: @runningforprems
Facebook: @runningforprematurebabies

You can also read our last chat with the incredibly passionate, resilient and dedicated Sophie here. 

earlybirds