Harcourt Valley Primary School staff on their marks to get set, go

Staff at a small central Victorian school are coming together to train for the Run For The Kids in support of one of their young students

Conor Fowler

less than 2 min read

February 29, 2024 - 12:00PM

Kids News

Harcourt Valley Primary staff are competing in Run 4 the Kids for one of their Year 4 students. From left, staff members Louise Simpson, Stacey Turner, Raewyn Rice, Scout Chilvers, aged seven, whose sibling Mack has leukaemia, Britanii Norris and Andrew Blake. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Staff at a tiny school in Victoria’s Central Highlands are training up to run for a special student at next month’s Herald Sun Run For The Kids.

Louise Simpson is one of many staff at Harcourt Valley Primary School, an 81-student school just outside of Castlemaine, who will be running for Mack Chilvers – a Year 3 student who was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in July 2020 and is undergoing his second round of chemotherapy.

“It’s been wonderful to see the staff getting so involved in training for it,” Ms Simpson said. “I’ve been running the event myself for the past six years … it’s always a very exciting, emotional day, and there’s lots of families around that have got their kids in the Royal Children’s hospital.”

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Mack’s sister Scout also attends the school in Year 1, and Ms Simpson said the Chilvers family found it “really special” to see the staff run for Mack.

Mack’s sister Scout, seven, is a Year 1 student at the school. Behind her from left are staff members Raewyn Rice, Stacey Turner, Louise Simpson, Andrew Blake and Britanii Norris. Picture: Zoe Phillips

“We are a small country school and we are like one big family, it’s been lovely to see the school community come together to help support Mack and his family through this difficult time,” Ms Simpson said.

“As a staff, we even had a recent visit to the Royal Children’s Hospital while he was having one of his treatments.”

Everyone is hoping Mack will be able to make it down to Docklands in the Victorian capital at the start or finish line on the day.

“We’re really excited,” Ms Simpson said. “There’s a lot of other special kids as well that are going through that stuff as well, so it’ll be nice to support one family out of so many.”