Inspirational Jamie creates a special Christmas video – with nod to Covid
A young man with a rare chromosome disorder has made a Christmas video to spread festive cheer.
Jamie Hartley, aged 22, from Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton, suffers with 11Q, also known as Jacobsen Syndrome, which gives him the “abilities of a three-year-old”.
Jamie, with the help of mother Tara, 46, created a remake of the song Santa Claus is Coming to Town. They added in words that were relevant to Covid, given the pandemic.
Tara said: “During the coronavirus lockdown, we did challenges with Jamie to help cope with lockdown. In the end, we raised over £1,000 [for the NHS].
"During the second lockdown, and in the run up to Christmas, we did a little performance of Santa’s Coming To Town because he loves music. We changed some of the words to ‘mask’ and ‘washing our hands’ and things like that.
We shared with family and friends and lots of people were asking for it so we thought, maybe to help everybody understand, especially younger children, what we need to do to make sure Santa comes to visit, that we shared a video, and Jamie’s message following the rules at the moment.”
She continued: “He absolutely loves music and just loves sharing it with people so we just wanted to share the Christmas message and ensure everybody gets to have the chance for Santa to come with it.”
She added: “Although Jamie is 22, he has got the ability of a three of four-year-old so this is always going to be special for him.
“He is still very much a child. He is finding it very difficult [lockdown].
“He loves to help people and say hello to everybody. But because he is classed as vulnerable, he hasn’t been able to get out a lot.
“He normally goes to Dudley College who are really great with him. He loves being around people. They call it the happy gene as part of the 11Q.”
To view the video, search for #ChallengeJamie2020 on Facebook.
