PONTARDAWE: Crash survivor Cian, 11, plans to walk up Pen y Fan 10 times in 24 hours
Cian Evans from Pontardawe was two when a car crash killed his mum, Rebecca, and his unborn sister, Cari. Rebecca was eight months pregnant, his dad, Alex, said.
This month the 11-year-old and his dad plan to walk up and down Pen y Fan 10 times in 24 hours. They will do it during Baby Loss Awareness Week, the week that remembers babies lost in pregnancy and infancy.
On Friday night, the fundraising Cian has done for the people who helped him won him the Young Fundraiser award at the Child of Wales Awards.
The ceremony at Swansea Building Society Arena marked the awards’ fifth anniversary, with 700 guests.
Cian Evans with his Young Fundraiser award, his dad, Alex, and family at the Child of Wales Awards (Image: Child of Wales Awards)Fractured skull, collapsed lung and two broken legs at the age of two
The crash happened in 2016. Cian fractured his skull, his lung collapsed and he broke both legs, and the awards say he also suffered multiple facial injuries.
He spent five days at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital, whose staff his dad calls “absolutely brilliant”.
Alex is in no doubt what saved his son. “Without Noah’s Ark and the Wales Air Ambulance, I don’t think he’d be with us today,” he said.
Nine years on, he still needs physical and emotional support, the awards say.
Cian with his dad, Alex (Image: Child of Wales Awards)£10,000 for Harry’s Fund, the charity that gave him counselling
Years later, bereavement counselling came from Harry’s Fund, a charity that supports children and families affected by trauma.
He took on the Welsh Three Peaks because the charity had helped him, Cian said, and “I just wanted to give something back to them”.
Last year he and his dad climbed Yr Wyddfa, Cadair Idris and Pen y Fan, raising £10,000 for Harry’s Fund, the awards say.
Cadair Idris was the hardest of the three because of the heat, he recalled. After that, “we did Pen y Fan and then we went home and slept”.
Cian during the Welsh Three Peaks challenge (Image: Child of Wales Awards)Before that he raised £1,500 for the Wales Air Ambulance by walking 100km in the Walk Wales challenge, according to the awards.
For Alex, giving back was the point. It was “really important to us that we were able to do something to give back to them so they could continue their services”, he said.
“A lot of people are going through the same things as me”
Cian knows other children are where he was, without the help he had. “I understand that a lot of people are going through the same things as me and they don’t have the support that I did,” he said.
In February he won the Young Person award at the St David Awards, Wales’ national honours.
Friday’s award left him “really happy and excited”, he said. “I also feel very proud of myself, because I don’t do the fundraising for things to come back to me, but they always do come back.”
10 times up Pen y Fan in 24 hours, and no training yet
Baby Loss Awareness Week runs from 9 to 15 October. It ends with a Wave of Light on the 15th, when families light a candle at 7pm for the babies they have lost.
Cian and his dad have one snag, Alex admitted: “We haven’t trained yet.”
BBC Morning Live presenter Gethin Jones on stage at the Child of Wales Awards 2026 (Image: Chris Allan)BBC Morning Live presenter Gethin Jones hosted the awards for a fifth year. This year the night raised money for Wales Air Ambulance and the mental health charity Big Moose.
Neath dad John Jenkins, who carried his daughter Leah to the top of Pen y Fan, also won on the night.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Max Boyce and local heroes celebrated at St David Awards
Cian among the local winners at Wales’ national honours in February.
NEATH: Dad ran 27 miles to Pen y Fan, carried his daughter to the top, then ran home
John Jenkins, another Child of Wales winner this year.
CHILD OF WALES: Doctors told her mum she might be paralysed. Gracie, seven, has now raised £65,000 for the crew who saved her
The seven-year-old who raised £65,000 for Wales Air Ambulance after a collision left her with a collapsed lung.
More on the Child of Wales Awards
Every story from the awards for Wales’ young people.
