Scott Worgan is walking 600 kilometres to raise awareness of the importance of blood donations.
Before his 10-year-old daughter Sienna was diagnosed with leukaemia, he thought blood transfusions were mainly for victims of trauma and accidents.
"One in three Aussies will need blood during their lifetime, however, only 3 per cent donate today. My goal is to change this," Mr Worgan said.
Donated blood goes to patients with: cancer and blood disease (34 per cent), anaemia (19 per cent), heart, organ and surgeries (18 per cent), stomach, kidney and other diseases (13 per cent).
Other blood needs are: fractures and joint replacements (10 per cent), pregnant women, new mothers and young children (4 per cent), road incidents and other traumas (2 per cent).
Scott is walking from his hometown of Inverell to Terrigal - where he lives now.
He stopped at the Australian Red Cross Newcastle Donor Centre at Broadmeadow on Friday and is expected to finish his epic walk in Terrigal on Sunday.
"I have a personal goal to get 500 people to join our Lifeblood team. I'm at about 350."
These teams enable people to get together as a group of blood donors and earn points for donations.
"Our team is Bush to Beach for SJ [Sienna's nickname]," Scott said.
While the walk had been hard and painful, Scott was "eating what I want at the moment".
"It's bloody great. The diet is whatever it needs to be to make sure I'm fuelled during the day," he said.
Scott said the walk was "a good opportunity to be by myself, with a lot of time to think, decompress and process things".
"In doing so, it's also a way that I can recognise what Sienna has been through.
"Walking is a true reflection of the journey that Sienna and many patients are on with cancer.
"While we've been by her side constantly, myself, my wife or both of us, it's a long and lonely journey."
Sienna was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in August last year and has since needed 30 blood transfusions to help her survive.
"As the name suggests, it comes on very quickly and is quite aggressive. It is the most common type of cancer in kids," he said.
"It's a two-year treatment path. We're almost a year in.
"She's doing well, she's passed the intense six-month phase of treatment."
She's now in the 18-month maintenance stage, which involves taking oral chemotherapy medication.
"She's made really good progress, they can't find any more leukaemic cells in her body, which is great.
"That means it's kind of remission, but they need to continually ensure she gets tested.
"They have a lot of research that if they treat it for this extended period, they've got a really good success rate in making sure it never comes back."
Visit lifeblood.com.au or call 13 14 95.
