A BEXLEY family is launching an award scheme in memory of their son who died in a freak accident in the Atlas Mountains on Boxing Day.

Tim Ward-Wilson, 25, of Cloudesley Road, Bexleyheath, died while helping to map new mountaineering opportunities in Morocco.

Now his parents have decided to celebrate his adventurous life by offering other young people the chance to widen their horizons.

His mother Janice said: “Tim was an amazing man who found a different lifestyle.

“But it was a very expensive venture for him and it was hard at times.”

She explained: “There is no funding or support available for young people at the age where they are trying to find their way in life.”

Two days before his death Tim, a former pupil at Belmont Primary School in Erith and Dartford Grammar School, had just climbed the the highest and most technical climb of his career and which had just been named after him.

Piecing together what happened, Mrs Ward-Wilson, 54, said on Boxing Day, Tim’s knee was aching and he had decided to take a rest day.

But later he caught up the rest of the climbing team on a plateau near the hut where they were staying.

He parted with them again, saying he was going back to the hut to take photographs and work on an article for the Royal Geographical Society.

When the team could not find Tim back at the hut, they went looking for him and found him on a small slope, lying behind one of only two boulders in the area, injured and incoherent.

The remoteness of the location meant medical help did not arrive until the December 27.

By that time, despite the efforts of the rest of the team which included phoning a doctor in the UK for advice, Tim was dead.

Mrs Ward-Wilson said: “We did not find out until the next day through a voicemail message.

“We were getting ready to go to church and had missed two calls.

“The message just said Tim had been killed on the mountainside.”

The family, supported by Bexleyheath Community Church members, had to wait four weeks to get a post mortem examination report.

It said their son had died from internal bleeding caused by his liver rupturing when he hit the boulder.

Mrs Ward-Wilson said: “It was a freak accident. If he had missed the boulder or been with other people it could have been prevented.”

The family had been due to pick up Tim from the airport on January 5 after his trip.

Instead they went to collect his body.

More than 500 people, including his former headteachers, attended his funeral at Sidcup Community Church.

With the help of a charity grant, Tim had been an unpaid intern for the British Schools Exploring Society (BSES), helping with scientific experiments in the Himalayas.

He had also applied to train as an Army officer at Sandhurst and after his death, his parents received a letter notifying him of his interview in April.

On March 5, Mrs Ward-Wilson her husband John and Tim’s younger brother Simon, 23, will launch the award at a reception and fundraiser at the Royal Geographical Society in central London.

It is open to family friends, Tim’s friends and his colleagues and aquaintances.

Anyone who wants to attend should email twwma@hotmail.co.uk by February 26.

The award will provide a bursary for an expedition with BSES for a young man aged 19 to 25 or support for a BSES leader.

To donate to the award or find out more, go to bmycharity.com/twardwilsonmemorialaward