When he was young, a number of Ed Wilkinson's childhood friends were his father's patients - children who had been diagnosed with cardiac disease at an early age.
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It was only when he was a teenager and talking to his father that he learned the truth about his playmates.
"I remember chatting to dad and saying whatever happened to this kid or that kid that I remember playing with when I was younger, and on a number of occasions the sad story was they hadn't survived," he said.
Mr Wilkinson, 37, of Canberra, will continue his father's work to help children with heart disease by running the equivalent of eight marathons in eight days for charity.
From December 13, he will run from Canberra to Sydney in eight days, a 350-kilometre trip that will start at Parliament House and finish at the Opera House.
"I can't do anything to assist them medically but I like running and I had this desire to do a long-distance run. I thought this would be a good way to bring the two interests together," he said.
More than 2000 babies were born with a heart defect in Australia every year and in 80 per cent of cases the underlying cause was unknown, he said.
He is aiming to raise $5000 through Everyday Hero, all of which will go to helping children with childhood cardiac disease through Heart Kids.
"As an adult you get an appreciation of how insidious childhood heart disease is. It's the leading cause of death for children in this country - twice as many kids will die of heart disease as they will of cancers," he said.
To prepare for his run Mr Wilkinson, who also works as a volunteer firefighter, has been running 15 kilometres to work and back every day.
His father, James, who has retired as a paediatric cardiologist, will accompany his son across the eight days in a support vehicle.
"My GP is very impressed I have my own cardiologist with me on my run," Mr Wilkinson said.
