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 w

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