The heart-warming way this Derbyshire community has rallied to cheer up 'down in the dumps' little boy after his birthday plans had to be axed

A Derbyshire community has banded together to cheer up a little boy who was down in the dumps because the current lockdown had spoilt his birthday plans.
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Rylee Mulvey turned five on Wednesday, April 28, but the go-karting he had set his sights on had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

His parents, Sarah Anne Wright, 33, and Carl Mulvey, 36, then planned a special BBQ tea to celebrate Rylee’s big day, but that had to be cancelled because of the rain.

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So residents of Bolsover banded together to make sure he had the best day he could and delivered 47 birthday cards to his home in Houghton, as well as presents.

Five-year-old Rylee Mulvey with all the birthday cards and presents given to him by the community to cheer him upFive-year-old Rylee Mulvey with all the birthday cards and presents given to him by the community to cheer him up
Five-year-old Rylee Mulvey with all the birthday cards and presents given to him by the community to cheer him up
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And to make his day extra special, one resident dressed up as a Stormtrooper and visited his home to wish him happy birthday, while a local plumber made him a toy gun out of copper piping.

Mum Sarah said that, to make matters worse, due to her heart condition, the family are on total lockdown, making things extra tough for the three of them.

She said: “He had got a big go-kart party, which we’d been planning for about eight months, and because of all the lockdown that got cancelled. Then we thought we’d do him a special BBQ tea, just the three of us, and that had to be called off because of the rain.

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“It’s so sad and scary what’s going on at the minute, but if you look at what local communities are doing for each other at the minute, it’s wonderful.”

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