THE FATHER of a young child who passed away following a battle with a rare brain tumour has described his son as “our hero” after a road race in his name raised €17,000 for Crumlin Children’s Hospital.

The Ben5K took place on March 1 and saw 800 runners raising sponsorship money and braving the wind and rain of the day to create what became a veritable community event.

Bernard Wadding and his wife Emma lost their three-year-old son Ben in February 2012 to a rare brain tumour which affected the toddler.

Last year, Bernard explained, a friend of his Jay Kehoe contacted him as his daughter had also spent a lot of time in Crumlin Hospital and he suggested organising a race to raise funds and doing it in Ben’s memory.

Bernard said: “We set out with three goals: to keep Ben’s name alive; to raise as much money as we could for Crumlin; and to put on a high quality 5K for the community in Wexford.” The event was very much a team event and he thanked all of those who got involved in the event or helped in any way.

He added that he felt a lot of people could relate to Crumlin as a cause because there were very few people who didn’t know someone with a child using its services.

“They do amazing work there and it’s not always easy. In the oncology ward, sometimes it is as much about seeing a child through to the end in as dignified and comfortable way as possible as it is achieving a cure for them. As parents that’s impossible to accept as you fight for your child’s life. I don’t envy the work of the nurses, doctors and consultants up there and we will never forget them.”

He paid tribute to his wife Emma who also fundraised in the aftermath of Ben’s passing, coordinating over €30,000 in donations for the hospital. He joked that she had had a lot to put up with in the run-up to the race!

“Finally, Ben is gone from us physically but he lives on in more ways than we could possibly have imagined. None of this would have happened without him. I’d like to quote an email I received yesterday from a colleague of ours, Annette O’Neill, about the Ben5k: ‘To say it was a great tribute to Ben’s memory doesn’t seem to do it justice. Ben5k should now be nominated as a new word to describe the combined feelings of togetherness, community spirit, good will and lifted spirits.’ That’s not us as organisers that created that feeling, it was just what happened. That was Ben.

“We are very proud of Ben. He has given us more than he could ever have imagined and we will always love him. He is our hero.”