Hartlepool school girl sends “get well soon” message to the whole world amid coronavirus pandemic

Parents are in the midst of finding creative ways to keep their children entertained as more schools close due to the coronavirus, including mother of four Louise Ridley, 35, from Rift House.

Her eight-year-old daughter Heidi Faye, was the mastermind behind the poster that is now taped to the front door that reads “get well soon world”, Louise said: “I said to them should we do something to put up on the windows and that’s what she wanted to put up.

“The whole family took part in it even the dog walked over it.”

Helping Heidi with her masterpiece was her four-year-old sister, and 21 mother year old twin siblings who added their smudgy hand prints to the bottom.

The family is currently in self-isolation and is ‘taking each day as it comes’. They have made arrangements for family members to bring them shopping and leaving it by the front door, while they wait out their precautionary two weeks.

Louise continued: “It’s scary how much we take for granted, like going to the shops for bread and milk.

“So much of the news is doom and gloom and then you go on social media and it’s all the same, so I think anxiety about the virus has spread faster than it has.

“So we just wanted to bring some happiness back to the people and there is something so beautiful about a child’s innocence – I had to get it up on the door as soon as possible.

“I’m a really proud mam, she has a heart of gold.”

Louise posted the work of art in the Town of Hartlepool Facebook group and within two hours had more than 400 likes and is receiving an overwhelming response from Hartlepool locals as one person said: “Brought a tear to my eyes” and another read: “Goosebumps. That’s our future.”