The heartbreaking reason this dad ran with an empty pram

A heartbroken father who ran a marathon with an empty pram after his son was stillborn, has had spectators yelling out to him to say he had "lost his kid."

Troy Austin's son TG was "born sleeping" in January 2016 at just 27 weeks, leaving the family devastated, and he now strives "daily to create a legacy" the little boy would be proud of.

On August 20, Mr Austin decided to run the 42-kilometre Sunshine Coast marathon in Queensland to raise stillbirth awareness, but said many spectators were confused by the empty pram and innocently joked he had "lost his kid."

"At the start I could handle the comments a lot easier, but became somewhat blunt at about 30km mark," Mr Austin told 7 News Online.

"To them it wasn't a hurtful comment, they just didn't know. That was part of the reason for running with the pram."

Mr Austin said he wouldn't have been able to stomach the jokes if he did not have his friend running beside him to "stop his bottom lip from trembling."

"As the run continued the onslaught was relentless, crossing over to the second lap I hear on the loud speaker....'here comes old mate and it looks like he lost his kid' - more giggles from the crowd," he wrote on Facebook following the race.

Mr Austin said his responses were a mix between smiling and politely moving on and "bluntly" telling them the empty pram "was the point."

"No you can't sit in and get a ride, no I am not picking my kid up on the last lap (wish I could)," he said.

"By the last 10km both myself and [my friend] Brett had finally realised that some of their laughter was because they didn't know what to say or didn't want to think about it."

Mr Austin said his son would have been one and a half and sitting in the pram during the race if he were alive.

He started a Everyday Hero campaign called TG's legacy to try and raise awareness and stop the stigma surrounding stillbirth.