Youngster’s visits for care home chat
LITTLE Jack Thompson is doing what he does best as he brings happiness into the lives of young-atheart pensioners.
The nine-year-old chatterbox is making regular visits to residents at Wardley Gate Care Centre in Gateshead.
And he’s now struck up special relationships with his favourites as they share stories and giggle together.
Jack was just four months old when he was diagnosed with a tumour on his optic nerve, which has left him registered blind. He’s undergone several rounds of chemotherapy and had numerous hospital stays, and also needs daily growth hormone injections.
But despite all of this, Jack is the happiest kid around and is making sure that rubs off on to others.
“I think that the old people like to chat to a kid as some of them don’t get to see many, it makes them feel happy and I have made lots of new friends,” said jovial Jack, of Wardley.
The St Augustine’s Primary School pupil was featured in The Chronicle back in May when we told how the little chatterbox already had three jobs. We told how customers fell in love with him, while bosses had even given him miniature uniforms to make him feel part of their teams.
And determined Jack has made his family proud after raising more than £6,000 for charity, holding down a string of shop roles, and winning trophies with his trampolining.
In April, he was also presented with a Bravehearts Award in recognition of his courage in adversity through his illness. And this month he won a Chronicle Champions award in the Young Role Model category after impressing our judges.
Besides all of that, Jack now visits the elderly at Wardley Gate Care Centre. He spends most of his days with nana Elaine McKay when his parents, Jeff and Diane, are at work. And it’s his nana who takes him on his adventures.
Elaine, 61, of Wardley, said: “He just loves it. Jack goes to the residential care home every Tuesday, every two weeks. He knows all their names, their room numbers but he has his favourites.
“When the residents said they were having a Christmas party Jack didn’t want to miss that. He was there singing his song he made up. Jack loves Christmas and wants to share his enthusiasm with the older generation.”