As a child, her son only ran in his dreams

So now mom runs for him, including the 24th annual Sporting Life OK on Sunday. The run has raised more than 1 million for charity and expects 20,000 participants

- BEN COHEN

“I started to run because Kadin wasn’t able to,” said his mom, Karen Jewels. Kadin was diagnosed with bone cancer when he was nine years old.

When he was nine years old, Kadin broke his leg on a basketball court, exposing the cancer growing in his bones.

From then on, his childhood was spent in the hospital, undergoing multiple surgeries and receiving chemical therapies. His was the same cancer that killed Terry Fox. Newer, sometimes experimental, treatments kept him from the same fate.

But it took from him the freedom to run — in the waking world, at least. Growing up, Kadin still ran in his dreams.

And so Kadin’s mother, a Toronto musician who goes by the name Karen Jewels, started running for him. Jewels trains, and runs, and trains again for her son, who she said watches on with pride from the stands.

“I started to run because Kadin wasn’t able to,” she said. “While running, I would think of him, and it pushed me to go the distance.”

On Sunday, Jewels will join an anticipated 20,000 people for her third spin through the Sporting Life 10k. The annual charity run down Yonge Street supports Campfire Circle, a camp for kids with serious illnesses. Her racing team, We Run Tings, is accepting donations online.