Pounding the pavement doesn’t appeal to the Wagga High School PE teacher, but she admits there is no better reason to endure a 21km half-marathon than her

16-month-old son, Nate.

Nate was born 12 weeks premature in January last year, and spent the first two months of his life in specially designed neo-natal intensive care as his tiny body was nurtured to health.

With Nate one of the lucky ones to survive, Lawson now wants to ease the burden on other families with premature babies in rural Australia.

“I love playing team sports, but I really hate running long distances,” she told The Daily Advertiser yesterday.

“I found this website in January though and I thought it would give me a couple of months to train so I would be able to do the 21km.

“I thought ‘Yeah, I can do that’.

“It’s a cause close to my heart.”

After months of training, Lawson will join 300 runners from all over Australia to compete in the Sydney Morning Herald half-marathon on Sunday.

Connected by a big heart and a passion for the cause, the Running for Premature Babies group has raised more than $520,000 for the Royal Hospital for Women’s Newborn Care Centre.

This year the goal is to raise $140,000 to purchase two high frequency ventilators that are desperately needed to provide critical care for premature babies.

“It’s very expensive equipment and there’s only a certain amount of these ventilators in neo-natal care in public hospitals and they rely on donations and government funding to keep them going.

“It just doesn’t cut it.

“When Nate was in hospital it cost about $100,000, and that’s just one baby.

“When he was born he was only 770g, so by different conversions it’s about one pound.

“We were lucky we didn’t have any dramas with him, but it made me want to raise money to help out other people in the same situation.”

Lawson has dedicated herself to training for the past few months in preparation for the 21km race, and has raised $1000 in the process.

Wagga High students have jumped on the band wagon with yesterday’s Green for Prem day, wearing an item of green clothing for a gold coin donation to the cause.

“I’ve just been collecting donations and sponsorship,

but I’m always looking to add more money

to the cause,” she said.

“I’ve worked hard now, I just want to get across the finish line.”

For information on how to donate, contact Wagga High School or visit www.runningfor

prematurebabies.com an hit the link to “donate now”.

Follow @pamelawhaley