WITH a head not much bigger than a tennis ball and a 60 per cent chance of surviving, Cooper Arnold emerged into the world at Canberra Hospital weighing just 1100 grams.
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His electrician father, Dave, will today remember the first time he held his prematurely born son in his arms as he runs in the City2Surf.
''We were lucky,'' said the 32-year-old Mr Arnold.
''We saw others go to the nursery and leave without their babies.''
Cooper still looks tiny as he rests in the arms of his father, who weighs a healthy 110 kilograms.
When the Arnolds, of Fadden, discovered Cooper would be born premature, they were told to make a decision about whether they would put him on a breathing machine if he arrived and his lungs were not working. Premature babies put on oxygen are often plagued with health problems later. Thankfully, their boy was born breathing at just 28 weeks - his mother's waters had broken at 24 weeks.
After entering the world, it was not an easy road for Cooper who spent the first four months of his life in hospital.
These days, the 11-month-old Canberra boy crawls, waves, points and weighs 6.5 kilograms, after surviving the trauma of premature birth.
So far, Mr Arnold has raised $13,000 for the Miracle Babies Foundation, Australia's leading organisation supporting premature and sick newborns, their families and the hospitals that care for them.
This includes $10,000 pledged by the National Electrical Communications Association.
Mr Arnold hopes to run the 14-kilometre City2Surf from Sydney's CBD to the Bondi Pavilion.
He will not be the only Arnold from Canberra running in Sydney today.
Sarah Arnold, aged 23 and no relation to Dave Arnold, will also run in the race for the second time.
The public servant and lover of Latin dance has so far raised $1800 for Cure Cancer, in memory of her father, Charles Jubb, an environmental researcher who died from lung cancer.
''I'm aiming to run it in 70 minutes, but I'll be happy with anything under 72 minutes,'' she said.
The fastest men run the course in 40 minutes and the quickest women are about five minutes later than this. The race has been run every year since 1971.
Click on everydayhero.com.au to donate to any of the runners.
