Why this local nine-year-old is walking 65 kilometres in 13 hours
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Nine-year-old Canberra boy Beau Carr is on a big mission.
While other young boys are playing sport, catching up with friends or watching TV on the weekend, on Sunday 8 November Beau will be undertaking a very special challenge for a cause close to his heart.
He’ll be lacing up his sneakers to walk 65 kilometres in a single day around Lake Burley Griffin alongside his mum, Kelly, and dad, Sam, to raise funds and awareness for Cystic Fibrosis Australia. But he needs your help.
Aiming to complete 13 laps of the Bridge-to-Bridge walk – covering 65 kilometres in approximately 13 hours – Beau and his family are raising money for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) life-shortening genetic condition that primarily affects the lungs and digestive system.
For Beau, it’s personal: his mum was born with CF.
While Kelly has always been a devoted mum to Beau and his younger sister Mia, living with CF has meant a lifetime of daily treatments, twice-daily physiotherapy, nebulisers, more than 30 tablets a day, frequent hospital admissions, and regular intravenous antibiotic treatments.
For much of Beau’s childhood, hospital wards have felt like a second home.
With no known cure, Beau and his sister have grown up watching their mum battle relentless coughing, vomiting, hospital stays and intensive treatments. They know that when nurses arrive at the family home, it means their mum is very unwell.
Kelly’s daily fight serves as a powerful reminder of just how much children notice, understand, and carry alongside a parent living with a chronic condition.
A lifetime of battling Cystic Fibrosis
This year, Kelly celebrated her 40th birthday, a milestone she never thought she would reach. Diagnosed at just 16 months old, she says that her parents were told that she likely wouldn’t live to see her 12th birthday.
At age 10, she started a medication called Pulmozyme, which dramatically improved her lung function from 60 per cent to 80 per cent, helping her to avoid hospital admissions for 22 years.
In 2025, Kelly became eligible for Trikafta, a breakthrough CF modulator therapy. While it significantly improved her lung health, it took a major toll on her mental health. Then, in 2026, another breakthrough arrived: Kelly gained access to Alyftrek, a new CF modulator therapy that completely transformed her life.
Her persistent cough and vomiting disappeared, her mental health stabilised, she no longer needed continuous oral antibiotics, and her lung function reached an incredible 110 per cent. For Beau and his family, the transformation has been life-changing, allowing Kelly to live a life that once felt out of reach.
Making every step count
Watching his mum has made Beau passionate about raising awareness around CF. Walking for every person living with CF, every family impacted by the disease, and every child who deserves the chance to live a longer, healthier future, Beau and his family are determined to make every step count.
Because while treatments have improved, there is still no cure for Cystic Fibrosis. Above all, Beau and Mia hope for a future where they no longer have to ask, “Mummy, are you okay?”
For more information or to donate, visit cysticfibrosis.grassrootz.com
