NO one should have to say goodbye to their best friend, especially when you're a kid.
That was the sad reality for Kienna Clegg and Matisse Murray who lost their best friend Charlie Carr in 2015 when she was just eight-years-old to Neuroblastoma, a rare form of cancer.
The now 17 and 18-year-old are school captains at Whitebridge High School. Charlie would've been in year 12 with them this year.
Despite missing their cherished friend immensely, the girls put their grief into pounding the pavement each year with Charlie's Run 4 Kids, where they run a full 150-kilometres over five days.
"What does this mean to me? I don't think there's words to describe that," Ms Clegg said.
"My personal goal doing this is to do whatever I can to stop anyone else from what happened to us - watching their best friend go through that and eventually not be here anymore."
"We lost her at such a young age, we don't want someone else - an eight-year-old kid - to have to lose their best friend. It's not fair," Ms Murray said.
"Everything we do, we do in her honour."
The charity started almost 10 years ago when Charlie was in hospital and "very bored", Ms Clegg said.
"She had nothing to do and all she wanted was some arts and crafts so she set a goal and wanted to raise $2000 to get some arts and crafts for the hospital," she said.
Charlie's father Brett was at the pub one evening with mate Cheyne Waddingham and a drunken conversation led to the idea of running from Seals Rocks to Dudley to raise money for Charlie, and kids just like her.
"The goal that year was $2000 and they ended up raining just over $39,000," Ms Clegg said.
This year over 50 runners will join in on the run including Whitebridge High School students Charlotte Abrahamson, Deizel Danvers, Lenni and Willow Waddingham and Riley Hollier, and will step off from Seal Rocks on Wednesday, March 13.
"We start bright and early on Wednesday morning and will average 30-kilometres a day through to Sunday and we'll finish on Sunday at midday at Lydon Oval in Dudley," Ms Clegg said.
She said in terms of preparation she was mainly counting on community support to get her through the run.
"At the end of the day I don't think it's the training that you do helps, but the support that we get on the run from our mates with us and everyone around us and the atmosphere that's created," she said.
"That's what gets you through."
The girls encouraged people to join the running team for the final five kilometres with registrations and the option to donate through the organisers' website.
"Each year this seems to get bigger and we're hoping to raise as much as we can, as much as this community is willing to throw at us," Ms Clegg said.
