Baylee Runnels took her first steps with Centre of Movement, now they are bringing the program to Mackay

A little girl living in a North Qld mining town and struggling with cerebral palsy took her first steps within just days thanks to state-of-the-art treatment in SEQ. Now, her incredible therapists are hitting the road to help other families.

After three years of waiting for their daughter to walk this family travelled from regional North Queensland to the Gold Coast to access the support they desperately needed, now that support is a little closer to home.

At just two years old Baylee Runnels was diagnosed with agenesis of the corpus callosum, a rare congenital brain defect which falls under the umbrella of cerebral palsy.

Baylee suffered from gross motor, global and speech delays and was not walking.

In the year after diagnosis Baylee would have monthly physiotherapy appointments and her mum Elise Runnels says while the physios were great, Baylee was not seeing much benefit.

It was at this point Ms Runnels found a little girl named Chloe on Instagram, who was roughly Baylee’s age and had also not been walking until she took her first steps with the Centre of Movement.

She immediately got in touch with the Gold Coast pediatric Allied Health clinic and enrolled Baylee in a three-week intensive clinic.

Within three days of starting that clinic, Baylee took her first steps.

Baylee has been working with Centre of Movement in the Gold Coast for the last few years. Photo: Contributed

“I was not expecting that,” Ms Runnels said.

“I didn’t even think we would get that in the first intensive, let alone in three days.”

Directors of Centre of Movement, Emily and Stephen Pennisi, said they saw more change in three weeks of intensive therapy than in a whole year of weekly sessions.

“Intensive therapy is really about accelerating progress and really working with neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to adapt and form new connections and intensive therapy really harnesses this ability for the brain by providing this frequent targeted therapy,” Ms Pennisi said.

Baylee Runnels from Moranbah has been working with Centre of Movement in the Gold Coast

Baylee and her family have since had to make twice-yearly trips from Moranbah all the way down to the Gold Coast to attend these sessions, relying on a lot of family support to make the trips possible.

Having both lived in North Queensland, the Pennisi pair understood just how challenging it could be to access resources like intensive therapy in regional communities, so they began running pop up clinics.

The latest of those will be held in Mackay, with a dedicated team of pediatric neurological rehabilitation specialists including Mackay native Toby Doevendans, the Centre of Movement’s Senior Exercise Physiologist who is proud to bring the program to his hometown.

Centre of Movement’s Senior Exercise Physiologist, Toby Doevendans will be returning to his hometown of Mackay for a pop up intensive clinic. Photo: Contributed

Ms Pennisi said it was incredibly rewarding to bring the program to regional communities.

“For families move their child, pay for extra flights, accommodation, and also getting away from their medical support or their support system in general and having to come down to these metropolitan areas, it almost takes it off the cards to be able to access this type of intensive therapy model and all the high-end equipment that we have, so it’s incredibly rewarding to be able to bring this level of care to some of our staff members’ hometown and to North Queensland where we know – yeah, it’ll make a huge difference,” she said.

Emily added that the community the families in regional towns create can be really special.

Baylee Runnels from Moranbah has been working with Centre of Movement in the Gold Coast

For Ms Runnels the “other lovely thing” is that parents on the same journey, new to navigating the disability space, come together for wo weeks, having lunch together, form connects and start to build a community.

For those unable to attend in person, Centre of Movement also offers an online course making it even easier for families in rural communities.

Meanwhile, Baylee is now nearly six and thriving thanks, in part, to the support she and her family have received from Centre of Movement.

She is now learning all the things that a schoolgirl would like to be able to do to keep up with their peers like navigating the playground, running, jumping, skipping, and writing.

Baylee has completed five intensive therapy blocks with the Centre of Movement. Photo: Contributed

Her mum said the team at Centre of Movement had been a massive help over the last few years and for that she was so grateful.

“They really teach me a lot too, it’s not just me taking my child to go see someone, they get me behind Bailey doing exercises and everything,” she said.

“It’s really good because then that’s what we take home, and they give me an amazing home program to do in between visits.

“I don’t know where we’d be without doing those intensives.

“We are incredibly grateful to have found such an amazing team to work with Baylee on her journey towards reaching her goals.

“They treat us like family and provide ongoing support between intensives that is truly outstanding.”

Originally published as Baylee Runnels took her first steps with Centre of Movement, now they are bringing the program to Mackay