Telethon Perth Running Festival: Sarah Covella runs in 10km event to celebrate young daughterJessica EvensenThe West AustralianMon, 22 September 2025 4:42PMCommentsCommentsEmail Jessica Evensen
Sarah Covella spends most mornings pounding the pavement.
Now, the 34-year-old is lacing up her sneakers to take on the Perth Running Festival 10km event in celebration of her young daughter, Nia.
The 12-year-old was diagnosed with Dup15q Syndrome when she was just 16 months old — a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder characterised by a duplication of one of her chromosomes.
As a result, Nia lives with a number of health conditions including autism, hypotonia and epilepsy.
“She was diagnosed with Global Development Delay, and the paediatrician said that generally they would like to do genetic testing to make sure there’s no underlying cause,” Sarah said.
“Then I got a call about four-weeks-later to come in, so I knew something was wrong.
“Funnily enough, the paediatrician that we were seeing at the time hadn’t even heard of (Dup15q Syndrome) because it’s so rare so they couldn’t really tell me much.”
Ms Covella said her daughter visited Perth Children’s Hospital every fortnight, and said she wanted to give back to Telethon by raising funds for the charity after more than a decade of support.
“Telethon obviously supports the hospital, and in turn, that’s supporting Nia,” she said.
“Nia loves Fat Cat, so that’s another reason to do it, because (Fat Cat) has just been there for Nia.
“We see (her paediatrician) privately, but he’s heavily involved with Telethon and does a lot of research, so that’s another reason I want to do this run, because I know that supports him and he’s been such a huge part of her life.”
Ms Covella said she had already raised over $1900 and said her family was coming down to support the race.
She said she hoped she could cross the finish line, pushing Nia in her wheelchair.
“I’m really excited … I love running, running is my outlet,” she said.
“It just seems right to do it and to be able to raise a bit of money at the same time.”
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