When Corinne Peach first met five-year-old Dakari Saunders at her son’s ju-jitsu class she was immediately touched.Though he’d been diagnosed with cerebral palsy at eight months, Mrs Peach noticed that he was full of life and “such a happy little boy”.She decided to take part in the Bermuda Day Half-Marathon on Dakari’s behalf and got six friends from running group The Weekenders, to help with the task.Natalie Dyrli, Mark Harris, Joe Barbosa, Steve Ortiz, Lisa LeBlanc and Darin Cassidy will run with Mrs Peach on May 24. Their hope is to raise funds to help give Dakari the best chance at having as healthy a life as possible regular speech and physiotherapy sessions will help him achieve that.Annesa Saunders’ blood pressure fell significantly while she gave birth to Dakari; there wasn’t enough oxygen getting to her baby’s brain.The youngster now has educational and physical challenges and has to regularly go overseas for treatment.Father Pete Saunders said it is recommended that Dakari have four hours of private speech therapy a week each 30-minute session costs $120. Dakari’s therapy was recently increased to one-and-a-half hours.The doting dad has noticed a “significant improvement” in his son’s ability to communicate.“We know that more is better for him. The most obvious [indicator of that] was that other family members come to us and say ‘I can understand him’ and that has come about in the past year.“My wife and I have our own method of understanding him watching his body cues or habits and behaviours but now we are able to understand more of his verbal communication.“He is just more outspoken, his vocabulary is better. He is not just pointing. For years he gestured more than he talked because he figured that was how people would understand him but he does more talking [now].”Mr Saunders said he was “pleasantly surprised” to learn the runners would be fundraising on Dakari’s behalf.Despite the challenges, Mr Saunders described Dakari as a happy child, who is always smiling.“His name means happiness and I have never seen anyone with a name that is more fitting. He is always jovial and likes to have a good time. He makes fun out of everything learning, being at church and he tries to see the lighter side of it.“My wife and I learn so much from him, just how he takes things on. The other thing I admire about him is he is very determined, despite his challenges he doesn’t allow anything to hold him back, especially physically.”The family met the athletes, and Mrs Peach’s five-year-old son Riley, last Sunday. Mr Saunders said: “It was just really special to be able to see a group of people that just wanted to do something for someone.“Bermuda is the first place I have been to where, just like that, people decide to help. Perhaps because it’s small and there are people from all over here. But there just seems like there are so many good people that are packed up on the Island.”Marathon runner Ms Dyrli recently injured her leg and knee, but insists on running next week’s race.She said: “Corinne told me all about Dakari and his condition and what an adorable boy he was. She said that once we meet him we would fall in love with him and we would just feel compelled to help.“She was right. We met Dakari and his parents at the track this past Sunday and instantly knew this was a deserving family.”Running mate Mr Barbosa said he was touched by Dakari’s story and believed the family’s need to be very genuine.“Running the May 24th half-marathon gave all of us an outlet to reach people and ask for their support to such a worthy cause,” he said. “Needless to say, it’ll make running the event more gratifying.”Mr Saunders said he didn’t believe the runners were doing this for any recognition, but just to positively impact the life of a child.“I don’t know how we can express just how grateful we are to them because it’s easy to get up and say ‘I can give $100 or $50’ but to be combining it with your other passion and going out to run is just incredible.”Mr Saunders said the family would be supporting the runners, perhaps in the area of Heron Bay Plaza, on May 24.Organiser Mrs Peach encourages everyone to give anything they can. To donate e-mail corinnepeach@hotmail.com or call 332-1277.