By Luke Voogt
Thompson’s Rebekah Spencer hopes a walk in honour of her late father will “smash” the $11,000 it raised for the Heart Foundation in 2016.
“The public support for last year’s Walk for Johno was incredible,” Rebekah said.
“This year we hope to make it even bigger.”
The St Ignatius PE teacher started the walk a year after her father John “Johno” Spencer died of a sudden heart attack in 2015.
“Rather than sit around on the first anniversary of his death I thought I would do something positive,” she said.
“Dad used to walk the dogs all the time – he loved it.”
Originally Rebekah intended to raise $500 by walking after setting up a donation page during the summer of 2015.
“I beat that in 24 hours,” she said.
“Because the link was on Facebook all my friends started saying ‘hey I’d love to do walk this you’.”
Eventually 150 volunteers raised more than $11,000 for the Heart Foundation.
Rebekah was confident this year’s walk would beat that mark with “heaps of kids” from her school and players from Leopold Football and Netball Club getting involved.
“We’ve probably got about 180 people so far,” she said.
Rebekah said her father “would cross lanes of traffic to help someone” in need.
“He never sat still – he was just a really positive and upbeat bloke.
When the fit and healthy 63-year-old died “it was a complete shock”, Rebekah said.
“Because dad didn’t have any obvious symptoms we didn’t know what to check.”
Rebekah’s mother Sue Spencer found Johno lying in the backyard after a fishing trip. A friend tried to resuscitate him while she called triple-zero.
An autopsy later found Johno’s blockage was so severe he would have died even if he had the heart attack in hospital.
Sue hoped the walk would spread awareness that heart disease – Australia’s leading cause of death – could kill anyone regardless of their fitness.
She will help out on the day, walking the last 3km due to screws in her knee and her own heart condition.
“The Heart Foundation receives 83 per cent of its donations from the public,“ she added.
“Everyone has got a heart and everyone knows someone who has been affected.”
Walk for Johno starts at the Queenscliff Rail Trail at 7am, 25 March, ending at Eastern Gardens with a raffle and children’s activities.
The walk has six different lengths, from 3km to 37km.
Buckingham Street Early Learning and Kinder will hold a “mini“ Walk for Johno on 21 March while Kardinia Early Kids Learning and Care will hold one on 23 March.
