Townsville dad takes part in Premmie Challenge to raise money, awareness for ill and premature babies

Inspired by his own journey as a premmie dad, Townsville’s David Dudley is lacing up to run 10km every day this November, raising funds and awareness for sick and premature babies.

David is taking part in the Premmie Marathon Challenge 2024. Picture: Shae Beplate.

A Townsville father of three has made a commitment to put on his running shoes and tackle 10 km every day of November to raise money and awareness for premature babies.

Taking part in the 2024 edition of the Premmie Challenge for the first time, David Dudley said his personal experience with having a child born prematurely inspired him to take on the challenge.

The Premmie Challenge see participants raising money and pledging to run, walk or swim a certain amount of kilometres across the month of November.

Blown away already by the support and donations he has received, especially from his colleagues at Logistic North Queensland, Mr Dudley was hoping to climb higher on the national leaderboard.

“I had a daughter who was premmie. She was nearly two months early,” he said.

“She was lucky, she was pretty healthy, and we only had to spend a little bit of time in the hospital.”

David Dudley's daughter Iylah was born prematurely. She's now 9.

Now nine-years-old his daughter Iylah is healthy, happy and loves to play basketball.

With the goal of raising $5000, Mr Dudley, who has two other daughters aged only one month old and nearly two, had the choice to run 50km, 100km or the largest amount of 300kms, which is the equivalent of a triple-ultra marathon.

He said chose to give it his all and run and walk 300km across the month of November.

“At the time when I signed up, it seemed like the best idea,” he said.

“A couple of days in, I was like, what have I done? But it’s been going good. Good for me as well because I wanted to do this anyway for my own health, too.”

“My wife is amazing, she holds down the fort while I duck out for an hour or two to walk and run.”

Understanding the stress and fear having a premature or ill baby can have on parents and families, Mr Dudley said it certainly wasn’t what he expected as a first-time parent.

“The stress of it all, even being a new parent for the first time, because I was quite young when I had my first daughter. You don’t know what to expect, and it’s added stress on top of that,” he said.

David is taking part in the Premmie Marathon Challenge 2024. Picture: Shae Beplate.

With the new technology advancements in medical equipment and research, Mr Dudley said the money raised will help go towards giving critically ill and premature babies a better chance of survival.

For more information on the Premmie Challenge or to donate, visit David’s Premmie Challenge profile.

Originally published as Townsville dad takes part in Premmie Challenge to raise money, awareness for ill and premature babies