A MEMORIAL bench has been installed as a lasting tribute to a young boy who died after falling from a rope swing.

Ethan Brady-Rainey, of Trevor, died a year ago after falling from a rope swing near to the River Dee at the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct.

Now his mother Tammie, 38, has had the bench put in place in the centre of the Trevor estate where Ethan loved to play with his friends.

Money donated to the family after Ethan’s death has been passed on to three good causes in the former Ysgol Dinas Bran pupil’s name.

Miss Rainey said: “Every mother would say this but Ethan was just full of character. All the cards we had after he died said he had a real spark.

“From the moment he woke up every day he was just full of life. 

“He wouldn’t let anyone pass the house without stopping them to say hello. The last 12 months have been hard but they have gone so quickly. 

“I think he needs to be remembered and people around us have been just amazing.”

The bench, made with wood from the Brazilian rainforest, was put in place on Monday last week as a permanent memorial for Ethan.

Miss Rainey added: “This is where the kids all play. Even on the day he died, they all gravitated to this area and you always see them out here.

“We wanted the kids to have somewhere to sit and remember Ethan, but also for it to be somewhere they could get on with their own lives. 

“Ethan was 12, not 90, so we just wanted something different that the kids could appreciate as well. He is remembered in his own little way.”

Lanterns have been lit in Ethan’s memory near where he died and Miss Rainey said friends and family gathered there on September 30 to mark the first anniversary of his death by letting off balloons.

And the family plans to decorate the bench with mini Christmas trees in the run-up to the festive period.

Since Ethan’s death, the family have donated £1,000 to Wales Air Ambulance, £1,125 to Hope House Hospice and a further £1,000 to the family of Dakota Roberts, a young girl from Caia Park who suffers from West Syndrome – a condition which can cause her to have up to 80 seizures a day.

Thanks to their donation, a metal star inscribed with Ethan’s name will be made and put on display as part of a Tree of Hope at Hope House.

Miss Rainey added: “There are so many people to thank individually it would be impossible to name them all. The support we have had from the whole community has been an amazing help.”

She said Ethan was badly missed by everyone, especially older brother, Callum, and cousin Milli.

Shortly after his death, friends and family placed scores of tributes near to the scene of the accident.

His fellow pupils put together tributes in his memory.

Flowers were left at the scene of the accident, along with a Liverpool FC scarf tied to a signpost.

An inquest into Ethan’s death was held in February. Coroner John Gittins returned a conclusion of accidental death.