Little
Harry Croft who has autism was in tears when he heard the family would
be away and unable to attend the latest Reading Buses open day.
But six year old Harry’s tears have been replaced by smiles thanks to Reading Buses Academy Manager Mick Hughes.
For
when Sandy Onofrio, a member of staff at Emmer Green Primary School ,
wrote and told Reading Buses that they had a young boy with an absolute
fascination for pink bus 23, Mick readily agreed to arrange for the
family to make a special visit to the Great Knollys Street depot.
Harry’s
mum Mrudula, 44, a hospital pharmacist, said today the family couldn’t
thank Reading Buses enough for ‘making a little boy’s dream come true.’
“The
special visit really has been a dream come true for Harry who has
autism and is obsessed with Reading Buses because of the different
colours of the buses,” she explained.
“We
have to plan all our trips around him catching the pink 23 and when he
was able to sit in the driver’s seat of his favourite colour bus and
also be taken through the bus wash it was absolutely fantastic.
“Mick had even arranged for Harry’s name to be displayed on top of the bus and I cannot explain what that meant to him.
“It
was all quite emotional and the visit which Mick so kindly arranged for
us was so much more than we expected. So much thought went into the
visit which also included the workshop and men working underneath the
buses which was very interesting.
“Harry
couldn’t contain his excitement. He was overwhelmed. There isn’t a
day when he doesn’t talk about the visit and he wants to go again.”
Mrudula
said it was a real family occasion with her husband, Matthew, 43, an
accountant, and daughter Holly, 5, also making the visit from their home
in Caversham.
She
added: “It was so much more than we expected and we cannot thank
Reading Buses – and especially Mick – enough for what they have done to
make Harry so happy.”
