Local family will lead Two Feet & A Heartbeat walk at Karlkurla Bushland Park on Sunday

Six-year-old Mia Pike has overcome more adversity than most people will face during their entire lives.

Facing childhood-onset heart disease and open-heart surgery, the young fighter has successfully taken the road to recovery with the help of her family, the HeartKids organisation and Perth Children’s Hospital.

This Sunday at 9am, the Pike family will unite with other Kalgoorlie-Boulder locals for the Two Feet & a Heartbeat walk through Karlkurla Bushland Park, which will act as a platform for community support for those affected by childhood-onset heart disease while also raising funds for the HeartKids charity.

Mia’s father Will Pike said HeartKids had provided invaluable support for the family “right from the start” and he encouraged community members to support the charitable organisation and attend the walk.

“Right after I first reached out to them, they started providing us with resources, and then we met Tash from HeartKids and she actually gave us a lot of personal support down in Perth,” he said.

“In our case there was nothing ever wrong with Mia from the outside, it shows you just don’t know when you could find yourself affected, and to me, that’s just another reason to really try and get behind this cause.

“Because there are so many curveballs in life, if you can do something proactively and help other people that will find themselves in that situation, then what a great cause.

“Even if you haven’t registered for the walk, if you turn up on the day it can all be sorted then,” Mr Pike said.

Although the experience was deeply frightening for the family, Mr Pike is happy to report that Mia is back to her energetic, joyful self.

“She’s top of the world, absolutely brilliant,” he said.

“If she didn’t have a scar, you wouldn’t know there had been anything wrong, she does cartwheels, she does dancing twice a week, she’s just flat out,” he said.

It is the happiness Mr Pike feels seeing his daughter back to her normal self which has spurred his passion for the HeartKids organisation, along with any other efforts to raise awareness and funds to combat an ailment which afflicts about 250,000 Australians.

“It’s not just about those that have been affected, but sadly those that maybe one day will find themselves with people in that situation, so to support the kids and the community itself, it’s just an incredible thing to do in that sense,” he said.

“I think there will be a good crowd of people there and I think it will show the Kalgoorlie community spirit.”

The city’s community spirit is something Mr Pike saw first-hand in Perth, when his daughter’s room harboured a familiar name.

“When we first went to Perth we stayed at the Ronald McDonald House, and the room that we stayed was actually sponsored by Billet Engineering,” he said.

“I thought must be there must be more than one but no, that’s Billet Engineering, a small business from Kalgoorlie, putting it out there.

When we got home I reached out to them and said thank you, they asked me, ‘What room did you stay in?’ I said, “What do you mean?” they said, ‘Oh, we’ve got two rooms.’ I mean, wow. They’re not even trying to promote it, they’re just great ambassadors for Kalgoorlie-Boulder.”