Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival

November 3, 2021

Team Very Special Kids is taking on the Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival! 

This year, with your help, we are aiming to raise $50,000 to help continue providing specialist palliative care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions and their families. We are thrilled to have a team of community ambassadors who are taking on various distances across the festival in December.  

One runner participating in the half-marathon is Chris Renouf, who has a personal connection with Very Special Kids. 

Chris said “In November 2019 we lost our precious son Reggie to complications stemming from Infantile Onset Pompe disease. He was two years old. Whilst it will never be okay, it is more bearable knowing that Reggie was able to spend his last hours at the Very Special Kids hospice in Malvern surrounded by those who love him. Very Special Kids have been incredible for us from the time of Reggie’s diagnosis through to the continued support we receive today. We will forever be indebted.” 

“Very Special Kids is extremely important to me. They helped us tremendously through one of the most difficult time in our lives. And running was important to me immediately after Reggie’s passing – it was a way of having some time with him”. 

Chris, Tess (Chris’s partner, and mother of Reggie), Cameron (two years old) and Robbie (two months old), have access to ongoing professional counselling and a range support programs, free-of-charge, at Very Special Kids. Their family is supported by Very Special Kids Family Support Practitioner, Edwina Hargreaves, whose role is to support to the entire Renouf family at all stages of their journey.  

Hear why Chris and our community ambassadors are supporting Very Special Kids in the video below.  

To support Chris, or a Team Very Special Kids runner at this year’s Nike Melbourne Marathon Festival, click here.