Ben's Story

“A heart-warming experience today to come and watch our boy run. He's really been looking forward to this day and being part of it for months, for months and months and months.

Today is very special for our boy Ben.

Ben was diagnosed with Phelan-McDermid syndrome at the age of six months old and in that process, they told my wife that Ben may not do a lot of things. That included walking, talking and participating in a lot a lot of things. But he's just a little champion.

We didn't tell him that he couldn't do things and he's just punched through the ice on just about everything before him. With support from the school teachers here at Coomera State School and a lot the love of his mum. Yeah, it's unbelievable. I am very proud of my boy.

I was actually Ben's teacher when he was in prep and I’ve seen him grow and develop. I have seen him just embrace learning and embrace life and it's fantastic.

This has been a huge build up, the excitement's been growing, but this year more than ever. It's made such a difference the children as (due to COVID) we’ve had events cancelled, we haven't had sports days, we haven't been able to do all those events that we would normally do. You can see from today the kids have had an absolute ball.

The fundraising processes is a wonderful process. As a family we have friends that are all over Australia, and through social media, people want to jump in and support Ben. Through that process Ben wanted a trampoline, the school needed a new playground, and there were people out there that wanted to support Ben and it's just a wonderful connection of how it can work. Everyone wins, I think that's the beauty of the program.

You guys have done awesome job, thank you so much, thank you SCHOOL FUN RUN.”