Cheeky Tao Lindemann is his mother’s pride and joy

THE way Tao Lindemann is running happily around his mum, you’d never know the little fella is living with a brain tumour.

TAO Lindemann’s smile and energy are a source of inspiration in the face of adversity.

Even after enduring a nine-hour operation to remove a tumour from the base of his brain, his positivity was an inspiration for his mother Felicity and staff at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.

“He was extremely good and he just managed it really, really well,” his mother Felicity, of Kingston Park, said.

“He knew that he was having a procedure and he understood he was having something done.

“The nurses didn’t want to sign him out because he’s such a happy little thing — he’s always got a smile on his face and he likes to make people smile and laugh.”

Tao, 3, was diagnosed with the tumour in August after two weeks of vomiting had his parents worried.

“We went to have an MR the following week and found there was a mass in his brain,” Mrs Lindemann said.

“We drove to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital where neurosurgeons were waiting for us (and) we were admitted straight away.

“They couldn’t remove all the tumour because it’s in the brain stem (and) it’s a difficult area to remove.”

Tao spent 10 weeks in hospital due to complications and is now undergoing 12 months of chemotherapy for the Grade 1 tumour, which is slow-growing but will always be present in his brain.

The overwhelming news over her son’s diagnosis was hard for Ms Lindemann to handle.

“When I was in the hospital I didn’t Google very much because I was too scared to look at things (but) a nurse told me about the Brainchild Foundation,” she said.

“I had a look at their website and I found it really informative and factual and not scary.”

Ms Lindemann is now a committee member of the SA branch of the Queensland-based charity which supports parents through their child’s diagnoses as well as raises money for research into the cause and treatment of brain tumours.

The driving force behind the SA-branch was Jimmy Harrington, 22, of Reynella who raised $250,000 for the charity by walking 18,000 around Australia in memory of nine-year-old Emily Crook who died of cancer.

Mr Harrington’s efforts earned him the Young Leader and the coveted People’s Choice award in the News Corp Pride of Australia awards last year.

The awards recognise the ordinary people doing extraordinary acts to improve their community, change lives and inspire others.

The countdown is on to this year's awards and Mr Harrington is urging the public to start thinking about people they believe deserve should be nominated for an honour.

“It (Pride of Australia) is an incredible program because it recognises local people,” he said.

“There are some people out there doing amazing stuff that are not getting recognised for it.”