The 13-year-old Willetton resident used his love of running to help his mother Rohana with her weight-loss goal and the two of them are preparing for this year’s HBF Run for a Reason.
Bailey has taken part every year since the event started and will again run on behalf of his father, who has had a knee replacement.
Mrs Dawson said Bailey had always been a high-energy kid.
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READ NOW‘We spent the first five years of his life trying to stop him from running around everywhere, but now we have accepted it,’ she said.
‘If he didn’t run to use all his energy he would have been a lot of hard work.’
Mrs Dawson said she knew he had talent when he finished third in a school cross-country event on the back of no training and while wearing sandals.
‘I saw what he was capable of and thought he needed a role model, so I started training with him to lose weight and get fit,’ she said.
‘He wants to make it to the Olympics, but if he can’t he wants to be a physio or a sports teacher.
‘He has such a fitness-focused outlook on life.’