Buxton family create replica Spitfire to celebrate VE Day anniversary

As the nation approaches the eighth week of lockdown procedures enforced by the government, many parents have begun home-schooling their children in an effort to continue teaching them essential life lessons.

And as part of that, the Blair family were inspired during lockdown to create a replica of the spitfire aeroplanes that helped defend the British Isles during the second World War completely out of cardboard.

Aside from some of the fun projects, one of the youngsters, Rory Blair, has had to endure a particularly tough spell during the lockdown period. The 6-year-old had a kidney transplant just over a year ago, meaning he has been kept on immune suppressant medication since the operation.

While Rory has been on his medication, the entire family – mum Lisa, Dad Stuart, and youngsters Ewan, Rory and Alec - has had to completely self-isolate for the past eight weeks, and they won’t be coming out of their own lockdown for a good while.

Rory’s mum, Lisa, said: “Our 6-year-old son, Rory, was born with Chronic Kidney Disease, and after years of hospital admissions with infections, tests, operations, and eight months of Haemodialysis he finally had a kidney transplant 18 months ago. With him being on immunosuppressants it has made him more vulnerable to COVID-19.

“We took the decision to isolate as a family about a week before lockdown started to protect him. As we are a family of 5, the risk of one of us bringing the virus home was quite big.

“We were then advised to shield at home and not to leave the house. If one of us went out, we would have to social distance from our son which is impossible, because he is six and he needs to be catheterised throughout the day.

“We have therefore had to rely on my mum to get food for us as we couldn’t get a home delivery slot from the supermarkets. My mum has also been picking up vital medication for us.

“We still have to attend transplant clinic so the renal team can keep an eye on his blood results and adjust medication if required. This causes a lot of anxiety due to the risks but it’s catch 22 as we still need to make sure his kidney is working.

“Lockdown has been an emotional roller coaster full of uncertainty, and we’re unsure how we will be affected once restrictions start to ease. We have managed however to come up with different projects to pass the time.

“The latest of which was to build a Spitfire from cardboard boxes and to decorate the house to celebrate VE Day. The boys particularly enjoyed VE Day as we had a BBQ and played games outside and they could pretend to be pilots in the Spitfire.

“We have also been doing some fundraising for the charity, Kidneys For Life. The boys Ewan aged 9, Rory aged 6 and Alec aged 5, have been walking a mile a day in the field opposite our house, which equates to 8 laps as part of the 2.6 challenge and myself and my husband are doing a virtual ride from Lands End to John O’Groats, which we are almost halfway through.

“We have been lucky that the boys have been really understanding and they are so resilient as they are used to things changing at the drop of a hat, but there has certainly been a lot of tears and tantrums along the way.

“Not seeing family and friends properly is taking its toll. However, we have a fantastic and well established support network to help us along the way, which we are eternally grateful for.”