A five-year-old Sidmouth boy who was inspired by Boris Johnson to build a Lego Nightingale Hospital is ‘ecstatic’ after the Prime Minister wrote a letter thanking him for his creation.
Sidmouth Primary School pupil Freddie Taylor had set his heart on Mr Johnson seeing his work.
His mum Katie-Louise Turner posted a photo of it on Facebook, where it came to the attention of East Devon MP Simon Jupp.
Mr Jupp sent Mr Johnson a letter and photo of Freddie’s Lego hospital, and this week, he received a reply in which Mr Johnson asked him to pass on his thanks to Freddie.
Boris Johnson’s letter said: “It was wonderful to hear that he has been inspired to build a Lego Nightingale Hospital – it looks fantastic. Please thank him for his effort and his support.”
Freddie’s mum said: “Freddie saw Boris on the news saying we need to build them (Nightingale Hospitals) to help everyone get through this and go to hospital and get better.
“He said, ‘I’m going to build one’, and it was awesome, it’s got an intensive care unit with windows so that people can wave to family members, and a fan to help people breathe.
“He said, ‘I want to get it to Boris so that Boris knows I’ve built one as well’, and I said, ‘OK, we’ll try.’
“We put it on Facebook, but I didn’t expect it to blow up like it did.
“Overnight it had 600 or 700 shares, all over the world, and then the MP (Simon Jupp) messaged me and said, ‘I would really like to help Freddie get this to Boris’.”
A week later, Freddie contracted Covid-19 himself, and during his hospitalisation and recovery, the family assumed that the Prime Minister was too busy to respond to Simon Jupp’s letter.
But on Monday, June 8, the MP contacted the family to pass on the letter from Boris Johnson.
His mum said: “Freddie was ecstatic, he could not believe that Boris Johnson had taken the time out of his day to say thank you.
“All that he’d wanted to achieve was for him to see that he’d built a hospital for him.
“It’s made the world of difference to him, he’s taken a copy to school to show all his teachers.
“He’s ‘best pals’ with Boris now, bless him.”
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