The Repair Shop expert Kirsten Ramsey was on hand to help restore a prized Pride of Birmingham Award, which was accidentally smashed
A mum was left feeling guilty after accidentally breaking her son’s Pride of Birmingham Award (Image: BBC)
A mum was left feeling terribly guilty after accidentally breaking her son’s most prized possession while doing the housework.
During Wednesday’s (October 21) episode of The Repair Shop: Beyond the Barn, BBC viewers saw ceramics expert Kirsten Ramsey tasked with fixing an award statuette belonging to Mikey Akers from Coventry. In a cutaway scene, viewers saw Mikey alongside his mum Louisa share more about the incredible story behind the award.
In 2018, Mikey was 16 years old when he won a Pride of Birmingham Award for his tireless campaigning to raise awareness about verbal dyspraxia, after being diagnosed with the rare neurological speech disorder when he was two.
Mikey struggled to learn to speak and, throughout his childhood, needed intensive speech therapy to find his voice.
When he was 13, he wrote a poem called I Am The Boy about his struggles and set up campaign organisation, Mikey’s Wish, to raise awareness and support other young people with the condition.
Louisa explained: “It affects the messages from the brain to the mouth, and they struggle to move the muscles and the nerves in order to form the sounds needed for speech.”
Speaking about his diagnosis, Mikey added: “Growing up with verbal dyspraxia was quite lonely. People outside of my family struggled to understand what I was saying. It was quite common that people thought I weren’t as intelligent because of my speech. It was very frustrating.”
Mike was ecstatic with the Pride of Birmingham award and called it his “proudest achievement”; however, the angel-like trophy was damaged when Louisa knocked it off a shelf while doing housework, shattering it. “When it shattered, I was mortified. I felt so guilty”, Louisa told the camera.
Back at the Repair Shop, Kirsten was determined to make the award look brand-new again and said, “You don’t get this unless you’ve done something quite extraordinary.”
The expert explained that it would be tricky to recreate the award’s shiny surface because of all the broken pieces that would need to be reattached.
As Mikey and Louisa visited the barn to collect the award from Kirsten, Louisa said she “just wanted to see it back in one piece again.”
Miraculously, Kirsten had managed to make the award statuette look brand new, leaving Mikey elated. “Oh wow, Thank you”, he told Kirsten while Louisa joked: “The guilt has gone”, as the mother and son giggled.
“I am proud of him”, Louisa added as Mikey confirmed: “It brings me back to when I first got it, it’s a nice feeling.”
Kirsten commented: “You’re clearly an inspiration to many, many people, which really spurred me on to try and do the best job that I possibly could, and It’s ready to go back to whatever safe spot you’ve got for it. “
The Repair Shop Beyond the Barn is available to stream on BBC iPlayer