No mountain too high for inspirational Cian

WHEN Cian Evans was just two he was travelling on the M4 in a car with his dad Alex and mum Rebecca. Rebecca was eight months pregnant with his sister Cari.

- RUTH MOSALSKI Political editor [e-mail]

They had come to a standstill near the Margam junction when another car crashed into the back of them at around 70mph, shunting their car into another. Alex, who was driving, and Cian, both survived but Rebecca and Cian’s unborn sister Cari were killed by the impact.

Cian was flown by air ambulance from the M4 to Cardiff and was immediately taken for surgery to treat a fracture on his skull.

The following day he had further surgery on his legs, which had both been broken in the crash. Cian then spent around a week in the Noah's Ark Children’s Hospital, in a specially designed room where his dad Alex, who had received a head and back injury himself but could stay in with his son, was understandably suffering from shock.

That tiny boy is now 10, and despite continuing to see a specialist to monitor the development of his legs eight years after the crash, he has just completed the Welsh three peaks to raise money for the counselling service which is helping him deal with more than most adults can ever imagine.

“Not a day goes by where I don't look back and think about what’s happened,” said Alex.

“For different reasons, from what we've lost to how things have changed, but to see how he was on the day of the crash and afterwards in hospital, and to watch his recovery and to watch him get from that point to where he was, completing his third mountain, it was an unbelievable journey. He's so strong”

It isn’t the first fundraising Cian has done: He's already raised money for the Wales Air Ambulance which took him to hospital, and it was while at an award ceremony to recognise that effort that he met the founders of Harry's Fund, a charity set up in memory of five-year-old Harry Patterson, who died aged five when his family car rolled down the drive and crushed him.