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Kip Freshwater: 'Smelly pants wee' boy's cancer fight legacy

Freshwater family Kip FreshwaterFreshwater family
Kip Freshwater died last month aged five

The positivity of a boy who died from a rare complication of cancer is being remembered in a fundraising drive and international messages of goodwill.

Kip Freshwater became known online for shouting "smelly pants wee" in an underpass on his way for treatment at Birmingham Children's Hospital.

He died at the age of five on 8 July.

Parents Sarah and Ed have since received messages of support from people across the globe uplifted by their son's happy attitude.

A charitable fund set up in his memory has already raised tens of thousands of pounds.

Freshwater family Kip Freshwater with dad, EdFreshwater family
Dad Ed joked that Kip "should have been called Google" due to his encyclopaedic knowledge of whales

Kip spent much of his life receiving treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and in October 2020 suffered a relapse.

At the time, Mr Freshwater said he would listen to Kermode and Mayo's Film Review on BBC Radio 5Live, which would often feature the slogan: "It'll be all right in the end - if it's not all right, it's not the end."

He explained: "[But] it really didn't feel like things were going to be all right." What he felt instead, he said, was "what I could do with right now is a laugh".

To that end he sent the show an audio clip of Kip shouting "smelly pants wee", which was in turn shared on the programme's social media here:

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Mr Freshwater said the shared clip "seemed to capture a moment", with people getting in touch to say it helped them get though a tough moment during lockdown.

"I just thought it was hilarious," he said, adding: "I didn't teach him those words."

Since Kip's death, the clip has been helping his bereaved family too.

"We were facing losing everything and to have strangers saying they'll remember him is so touching," his father explained.

Freshwater family Kip Freshwater rings the bell at Birmingham Children's Hospital to mark the end of his treatment before he relapsedFreshwater family
Kip rang the hospital bell with his treasured rabbit to mark the end of his treatment before relapsing in October

Mrs Freshwater said: "We're unlucky that [Kip] had this cancer but so lucky to have had the healthcare we did - [it] saved his life as a baby so we got five years with him."

Global healthcare inequality is on the family's mind, with a GoFundMe project seeking to support charities working to improve children's care around the world.

So far it has raised more than £40,000, with donations sent to Unicef, World Child Cancer and the Anthony Nolan Trust, which helped find a donor for Kip's stem cell transplant.

"We have so much support around us," Mrs Freshwater said. "Helping to save other kids' lives, it brings some meaning."

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