Torch teen Ben homes in on world games debut

The 15-year-old from Kilnhouse Lane, St Annes will fly to the USA in the summer to take part on the World Dwarf Games in Michigan.

It will be a first taste of international competition – and a first trip abroad – for Ben, who specialises in discus and shot put and is a regular at the National Dwarf Games held annually in Birmingham.

He picked up six medals at last year’s national event, just a few weeks before he completed a leg of the Fleetwood to Blackpool section of the Olympic torch relay in pouring rain.

Ben was born with a form of dwarfism and was nominated to be an Olympic torcherbearer by his mum Julia.

She supported him on the torch relay, which he bravely finished on foot after completing most of it in a wheelchair.

Family members and friends have been busy raising cash to help fund his trip to the States in August.

Julia said: “It will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for him to meet up with hundreds of people with dwarfism from all around the world.

“For all the reasons I nominated him to be a torchbearer, I feel he truly deserves this opportunity, especially as since taking part in the torch relay, he has undergone another round of gruelling orthopaedic surgery from which he is still recovering.”