Smelly Pants Wee

It all started with a reader email, sent in by Ed Freshwater. He told the story of his then four-year old son Kip, having to endure treatment for leukaemia, and the gruelling treatment involved. Kip took enormous delight in shouting in one of the underpasses of Birmingham the phrase ‘smelly pants wee’ on his way to the hospital. Simon Mayo reading the letter is quite something. (Listen here)

Over the following weeks, ‘smellypantswee’ really caught on. By much demand it was repeated. The world was in the midst of a global pandemic, and a four year old with a brain and a half was making strangers around the world grin, guffaw, and do their own impressions.

It was with huge sadness that we learned of Kip's passing on 8th July 2021, aged just five.

His family are now continuing to tell Kip’s story, and share memories, over at their website. They’re also fundraising in memory of this remarkable human, who made a lot of people laugh and grin and in awful circumstances continues to do so.