LAST weekend Lesmurdie’s nine-year-old Xavier Foster ran in the HBF Run for a Reason, raising more than $5000 for the Perth Children’s Hospital (PCH).

Xavier’s grandmother Liz Payne described Xavier as the kind of kid who enjoyed helping others.

Mrs Payne, who volunteered at the kids’ hospital, said Xavier was inspired by the work his grandmother did and asked her if he could do the HBF run.

“I want to raise money for the kids’ hospital,” Xavier told his grandmother.

Mrs Payne said Xavier knew he was one of the lucky ones because he didn’t have a medical condition which required him to go to the hospital.

“He can see that there’s children that need medical help and are staying in hospital for days or weeks on end,” Mrs Payne said.

“He’s a bit of a thinker, our little Xave.”

Mrs Payne said Xavier took the race seriously and made sure to train so he could get a good time.

“At Walliston (Primary School) they set up a running club every Friday morning.

“He was using that to help get his fitness up because he wanted to run the whole 3km.’’

On the day of the run, Mrs Payne said Xavier knew that HBF would donate unwanted jackets or jumpers to Vinnies.

“Even though he doesn’t like to wear a jumper, he made sure he had a jumper,” she said.

“He made sure that we all had jumpers that we could drop off at the start line.”

Mrs Payne said Xavier was overwhelmed at the amount he raised for PCH.

“I think originally he wanted $500 and he thought that was out of his reach.

“But the school, the community, friends, family, everyone sort of just got behind him.”

Mrs Payne said it didn’t matter to Xavier whether the donation was small or big.

“He was just very grateful.”