Lee-Anne Lupton starts most of her days at 4am, running with her dogs through the streets of Port Adelaide.
For much of the journey it is just the mother-of-four and her border collies, Aoife and Willow, weaving down empty streets and occasionally off course.
"It's amazing, border collies are the best running pals in the whole world except when there are ducks in which case they get a little bit obsessed," Ms Lupton said.
But a few years ago, as she ran Ms Lupton began to notice just how many people were sleeping rough on Adelaide's streets and how many people would ignore them, even when they needed help.
"I was always checking in and asking them how they're doing, making chitchat about the weather, and doing those sorts of things and then unfortunately I was witness to some poor treatment of some rough sleepers," she said.
There were three separate incidents one summer that affected Ms Lupton, including finding two people living on the streets who needed medical attention.
'They didn't want to be involved'
But it was the third incident that really hit Ms Lupton when she found an unconscious man.
"(He was) half on the road and half on the footpath and while I was trying to work out what to do with him and how to assist him as best as I could, I could see there were half a dozen people other people within the vicinity who were all very deliberately looking in other directions," she said.
"They were looking up at the sky or on their phone and they didn't want to assist, they didn't want to be involved."
Ms Lupton said new ABS statistics showed as of the last Census there had been an increase of about 10 per cent of people experiencing homelessness.
"So more than 122,000 people in Australia on any given night just don't have a safe place to call their own,' she said.
"Realistically, the number is almost certainly higher."
Now she makes it part of her morning to say 'hello' and offer a friendly face to homeless people in her area.
"We never know the events that brought someone to the place they are at in that very moment, and sometimes we fill the gap with assumed knowledge" Ms Lupton said.
"Many of us are really one pay cheque or one disaster or one event from the possibility of homelessness."
The librarian and part-time yoga instructor has also been raising funds to do what she can to help those in need.
Run to help raise money
Ms Lupton is about to do the hardest long-distance run of her life, a 2,700 kilometre trek from Perth to Adelaide.
She expects to be on the road for about 44 days as she plans to average about 70 kilometres per day.
Ms Lupton said she hoped to raise $80,000 — four times as much as she did on her last run from Adelaide to Melbourne in 2019.
That run took her 10 days.
Ms Lupton, who is deaf, said her dogs acted as her ears while she runs.
But with 70 kilometres to get through every day, they often cannot keep up and need a rest.
That means as she runs her dogs will rest in the support vehicle, or look through the window as she jogs on.
"When I'm struggling I come back to the why," she said.
"It might be hard and my feet might be bleeding, and I might be feeling sick and hungry … but it's still easier than sleeping outside indefinitely and having no safe place to call home," she said.
The run will begin on May 21 in Perth and is expected to finish in the Adelaide CBD on July 3.
All proceeds will go the Hutt Street Centre, Catherine House, Fred's Van and Orange Sky Australia.
