This is the heartwarming moment a schoolboy with Down’s Syndrome came first in a sports day race – after a group of his classmates teamed up to let him win.
Little 11-year-old Ollie Chambers’ thoughtful friends joined arms and ran one step behind him in an amazing show of kindness.
A clip filmed by Ollie’s proud mum Helen, shows the little lad glancing at year six pals in disbelief as he sprints as quickly as he can.
Spurred on by cheers from the crowd, Ollie beat nine other pupils at Baydon St. Nicholas Primary School, Marlborough, Wiltshire, to race over the finish line first.
As he does so, his friends rally around him, congratulating him on his winning performance with hugs and pats on the back.
Ollie’s mum Helen said the surprise act left her and husband Richard, a 37-year-old builder, in tears.
Mum-of-four Helen, 44, of Lambourn Woodlands, Berkshire, said: “I didn’t know anything about it on the day and most of the teachers didn’t either.
“It was the year sixes that came up with the idea. They planned it themselves and asked their teacher at the start if they could do it.
“Ollie takes part in all the races every year and every year he comes last.
“It was the final race in year six. Every year they have that race and usually it is very competitive.
“For them to give up the chance to win and let Oliver win was such amazing thing for them to do.
“His face was great when he crossed the line – he was really chuffed and he got a first place sticker which he was very proud of.
“He had no clue at all. He was pretty overwhelmed by it and I was taken aback. I couldn’t believe it.
“The tears came and we were just clapping and cheering – it was very emotional.
“After the race the headmaster came up to me and he was very emotional too.”
Helen, who is a full-time mum to Charlie, nine, Jack, six, and Grace, three, added: “He is a very likeable chap, very friendly.
“He gets on well with the other little boys and girls – they all think a lot of him.
“When I took him to school the next day they treated him like a hero.
“We had worried that children wouldn’t be that accepting, but he has been at the same school since reception and it has been amazing.
“It just shows you in this day and age how things have changed and how children will accept other children with special needs.
“For them to give up that race just means so much. I take my hat off to the boys for doing it.”
Kirsty Liddiard, a teaching assistant at Baydon St. Nicholas who works with Ollie one to one, said there wasn’t a dry eye on the field.
She said: “I knew about it in advance – they let me know about it two months before the sports day.
“It was the whole group of year sixes who decided that as it was Ollie’s last sports day it would be good to him to win something.
“They asked me and I said, ‘It is your choice.’ But they wanted to do something for him – something he would remember.
“There wasn’t a dry eye on the school paddock field and there were a lot of surprised faces. We were all so proud.
“Although it was only a little thing, to make someone’s day like that was absolutely brilliant.
“They weren’t gaining anything from it but they were making someone else happy.”
