Ben, a 13-year-old music and sport lover from Perth, has been named one of the eight finalists for the 2024 Redkite and Coles Dare to Dream Scholarship. 

“My dream is to excel and get better and better at music. I just got into it and it made me feel really relaxed in hospital.” 

The Redkite and Coles Dare to Dream Scholarship was established 11 years ago, to inspire young people whose physical or mental health has been affected by cancer and to achieve their goals and ambitions. This scholarship, funded by Coles, helps young people build their future and can be put towards education or life goals. 

Ben was diagnosed with a brain tumour in April 2024, just a day before school was set to resume. He had been complaining of headaches, so mum Kate booked an optometrist appointment to check Ben’s eyes. 

The optometrist appointment revealed pressure behind Ben’s eyes, so he was sent to the emergency room for scans and tests. That resulted in the first two-week stay in hospital, where Ben had surgery for a biopsy and had the pressure drained from his head. The family then had to wait two weeks for the diagnosis. 

“I was very stressed and surprised. I was mostly stressed for my parents. It all just happened so suddenly.” 

Ben’s mum Kate said the wait was “just awful”. 

“They said he would have to have brain surgery to remove it and that was very scary.” 

The surgery to remove the tumour in Ben’s brain took seven hours and went well. But that night, he had a stroke and was paralysed down the left side of his body. 

“Sean and I were pulled into a room with a doctor and a box of tissues and told he might not walk again. After all that we had been through to that point, it was too much to bear.” 

By the next morning, some feeling had returned to Ben’s left side. He started intense physiotherapy every day while in hospital. 

As a sports-loving kid, Ben was really upset to learn he wouldn’t be able to play soccer or surf while receiving treatment. 

“When I was back to being myself [post-surgery], I was just like, ‘Wow…I can’t move the left side of my body. That’s all my sports gone.’ But I worked hard, so now I can move it.” 

During all his treatment and physiotherapy, Ben was introduced to music therapy. He instantly fell in love with the keyboard, so much so that his grandparents bought him an electric keyboard for his 13th birthday, when he returned home from surgery. 

“For the first two-weeks I didn’t have any lessons, I just taught myself off YouTube.” 

Ben’s goal is to play Bohemian Rhapsody on piano and sing it, and to be able to read sheet music. 

“Because I haven’t been able to play so much contact sport, which I used to love, for another four months, getting better and better at music would be really good.” 

He also goes to a rock band group once a month 

“We went along to that, me and my dad, and it’s so much fun. There were other boys my age who have been through something similar and we all got to jam in a recording studio.” 

“In the rock band I mostly sing, I love singing, but I also do a bit of keys.” 

Ben is looking forward to the end of treatment so he can get back to doing all the things he loves best, which now includes music. 

“After five months, I’m really excited because then everything’s done. I’ve done all my physio, I’ve done radiotherapy, I’ve done chemo. And then I’ll be back to everything normal in Year Nine.” 

“I would love the Dare to Dream Scholarship so I can get piano lessons to get better at that. I want to play piano amazingly.” 

Since 2013, Redkite and Coles have awarded 500 Dare to Dream Scholarships worth over $800,500 to support young Australians whose aspirations and goals have been impacted by their cancer diagnosis.