Lee Rigby’s son, 12, is speaking out for the first time about his father’s death

25-year-old soldier Lee Rigby of the Royal Fusiliers was attacked and killed by two Islamic extremists in May 2013 while off duty near the Royal Artillery Barracks in Woolwich, south London.

His killers, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, are both serving life sentences.

Fusilier Rigby’s son, Jack Rigby, was just two and a half years old when the nation was shaken and his life was forever changed by tragedy.

Photos from Fusilier Rigby’s private funeral in July 2013 showed the boy – then just a toddler – in a T-shirt that read ‘My father, my hero’ as he clung to his grieving mother, Rebecca.

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of Fusilier Rigby’s death on Monday, Jack has spoken for the first time about the loss of his father while accepting a fundraiser in his memory.

“I aim to raise £1,000 for every year that my dad is gone and would love to raise £10,000 for the 10th anniversary,” he said Mirror.

The student walks and runs 26.2 miles during the month – the length of a marathon Scotty’s little soldiersa charity that supports grieving children whose parents died while serving in the military, and which Jack supported after his father’s death.

“I’m proud to host the May Marathon in honor of my father,” he said. “It also helps me take my mind off everything. A long walk is a nice break and a reminder that not everything is bad.”

As a toddler, the trauma of losing his father caused him to stint and lose the ability to speak, reports the Mirror.

On his Scotty’s Little Soldiers fundraising pagewhere he has now raised more than £11,000, Jack writes that the anniversary of his father’s death was “never easy”.

“But this year feels even more difficult for some reason,” he said of his tenth year.

Jack’s mother Rebecca, now 40, spoke about the lasting impact Fusilier Rigby had on the boy despite his death.

“Just because Jack was young doesn’t mean he forgot Lee,” the teacher, from Halifax, West Yorkshire, told the Mirror.

“Lee has always been such an important part of our lives and always will be. I’m so proud of Jack in everything he does, and I think Lee would be too.”

“Jack wanted to do something positive in memory of his father. He wants to show that even though he grew up without Lee, he hasn’t forgotten his father.”

Adebowale and Adebolajo ran over Fusilier Rigby with a car near Woolwich Barracks in May 2013 before stabbing him to death in broad daylight.

The father-of-one died as a result of multiple cuts and stabs after the attack, which was fueled by Adebowale and Adebolajo’s extremist beliefs, which their 2014 murder trial described as a “betrayal of Islam.”