"I've got an amazing group of kids - 19 grade fours - they're an amazing class and I love it," he says.

"I just kind of feel at home at the school, they made me feel so welcome as a first year teacher. They've taken me under their wing."

Outside class hours he is pursuing another challenge close to his heart.

The athletic 22-year-old is two-thirds of the way through a month-long multi-stage run in memory of his father.

The 900km run will raise money for cancer research.

When Calum lost his father, in 2018, he didn't talk about it much.

"I'd just started year 11 and I was a pretty shy person," he says.

"I didn't want to be treated differently, didn't want anyone to feel sorry for me."

His dad, Noel, a former blacksmith and boilermaker who enjoyed success in manufacturing, had been on the verge of retiring with his wife to the rammed earth house they had built in Sedgwick when he got sick.

The throat and bone cancer he was diagnosed with "hung around" for a couple of years, Calum says.

"Then all of a sudden we got told he only had three months to live."

According to Noel Gurd's close friend Kevin Peterson, Calum's father was "a bloody gentleman".

"He was a really good father, a really good friend and just a good all round bloke, he really was," Kevin says.

Calum, the youngest of six siblings, "got to spend the least time" with his father.

But the pain of the loss was something he initially kept within the family.

Now, six years later, he is more comfortable talking about it and wants other people to be more open about their feelings too.

"Th[e] experience is something that I wish upon no-one," Calum says.

"It was the feeling of not being able to do anything to save someone's life that is close to you that I am constantly thinking about."

What has changed Calum has been the passing of time "but also having open and honest conversations with my group of mates and my partner and my parents."

That communication has really grown his confidence and improved his outlook, he says.

"I just try to be positive and express my positivity."

Although always a keen sportsman, he had never been into running until he had the idea a bit over a year ago to do a charity run.

"I thought, 'Why not just do it?'," Calum says.

"So I trained for about a month and a half.

"A lot of my mates and family were really supportive."

The 50km run along the O'Keefe rail trail from Heathcote to Bendigo last year raised just under $9000 for the Cancer Council.

It was also a high point of Calum's life.

"When I finished that run it was the best feeling I'd ever had really," he says.

"I had so much love and support coming from everywhere.

"I was so overwhelmed with emotion I was crying."

On Thursday the young teacher was 20 days into a 30-day event, during which he runs 30km every day, starting and finishing at Lake Weeroona, with funds raised through the Love Your Sister Foundation.

"It's 100 per cent non-profit so it all goes to cancer research, which is honestly quite amazing," Calum says.

The organisation, which was founded by Gold Logie-winning actor Samuel Johnson OAM, is "committed to ending all 500 cancers with precision medicine".

Calum, who has been mixing up his routes, said he has been getting "some weird looks" from a few people who have seen him running at the lake every day, as well as some support.

Also providing support have been his school, friends and a range of local businesses.

"Everyone at White Hills has been great," Calum says.

"A lot of the teachers have donated and the raffle raised $1,500, which was so overwhelming.

"Just from the school alone we raised $2,500."

A series of Bendigo businesses, including the Lakeview Hotel, Queens Arms Hotel, Farmers Arms Hotel, Intagolf, Get Naked Espresso Bar, Indulge and Arbonne, contributed to the raffle.

Meanwhile his mate's Health Project gym has been providing morning "recovery" sessions.

"He's got these compression booths that help reduce inflammation in your muscles and get rid of lactic acid," Calum says.

"I sit in those, then head into the sauna. It's been quite a process but I'm getting used to it.

"I can't complain at all. I'm loving it - it's been really hard on my body and mind but honestly so enjoyable."