IT’S a celebration of the life of a powerboat racer who died too young.

Dean Paling and his friend Tom Emery were killed in a horror car crash on the B2177 Southwick Road near Boarhunt.

Now Dean’s dad Mike Keer has paid tribute to his son by launching a fundraising challenge to raise thousands for a Southampton cause.

This weekend he swapped his 48th birthday party for a charity event for Southampton General Hospital’s adult cystic fibrosis unit, which had supported Dean who suffered with the condition.

It comes as the dad-of-two and step-dad-of-two plans to do a skydive on his son’s 25th birthday, raising even more cash for the unit.

Since the powerboat champion died in December 2013, aged 23, Mike has had his first trip to a theme park and tried a driving experience day at Silverstone race track.

The HGV driver said it has helped bring him closer to his adrenaline-seeking son from whom he had been estranged 10 years before his death.

Mike, from Winklebury, Basingstoke, said: “Even though I hadn’t been in touch with him since he was 13 it gives me that opportunity to know a bit more about what he had been doing with fast cars and powerboats.

“I have got the bug for doing all that now and we have planned to do bigger and better things now.”

With the help of his wife Shirley and his nine-year-old son Tarran, he has already raised £2,500 ahead of his skydive in Swindon in September – including £1,300 raised at Saturday’s event.

Friends and family came together at Rooksdown Community Centre in Basingstoke to celebrate Dean’s life and take part in a disco, karaoke, raffle, prize draw and a ‘rodeo bull challenge’.

The grandad-of-one said: “The support has been overwhelming. I didn’t think we would have as many people giving to us.”

Shirley, 46, who runs Sweet Treats and works for Hampshire County Council’s highways department said: “The people who turned up made it absolutely fantastic.

They were all people that we knew and they all got into the spirit.”

• To support Mike’s fundraising challenge visit: justgiving.com/Dean-Titanium.