Beneficiaries

Boy puts a smile on star’s face

An ever-smiling lad had an even broader grin on his face when a special trike was presented to him by one of his heroes – former Newcastle United ace Peter Beardsley.

Callum is a popular Year 2 pupil at Carr Hill Primary. He suffers from cerebral palsy and has to use callipers, and have botox injections to aid his muscles.

One night, Callum’s classmate, Lucy Brooks was reading the Chronicle. She saw a story about the Sunshine Fund and asked her mum what it was about. Lucy realised that the Sunshine Fund could help Callum, so went up to her bedroom and wrote a letter to the fund.

She told us about a little boy in her class who was always happy and made people smile, but had difficulty moving and didn’t have a bike. She asked if the Sunshine Fund would provide him with one.

By February 2008 Callum’s trike was ready to be delivered. One day in school, his teacher asked the class to make three wishes and, as Callum did so, in walked Peter Beardsley with his bike wrapped in gold paper.

It wasn’t long before he was in the playground testing out his new trike, helped along by Lucy and his best friend and fellow pupil Lewis Watson who also has cerebral palsy.

As he does with everyone around him, Callum brought a huge grin to Beardsley’s face too. “You make all the children in your class smile,” he told Callum.

The trike is specially designed to promote Callum’s physical development, and will particularly improve the muscle tone in his legs.
“We can’t thank the Sunshine Fund enough,” said his mum, Kerry Pegg.

Callum Kidd, headteacher at Carr Hill, added: “Lucy and Lewis are typical Carr Hill kids. They look after their friends and Callum couldn’t have any better or loyal mates than these two.”


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