LEGO MASTERS’ ANDREW ‘MY WIFE DESERVES THE PRIZE MONEY’
Along with his teammate and pal, Damien, Andrew is hoping to take out the LEGO Masters prize, but outside the competition he is a loving family man. He chats to New Idea about them.
You have five kids; did you miss them while you were filming?
Yes, I said to them, “Guys, when I get back to the hotel, we are going to Skype call and talk”. And that got us through pretty well. You can make it work, but you just have to work hard at it.
Your wife must have had her hands full with the kids?
My wife is an incredible woman. We had some friends to help us, but she is a trouper, so I said to [her] “If I win this, you get the money” [Laughs].
Your children are adopted from Taiwan. Why did you decide to go down that route?
We made the decision many years ago that we wanted to adopt through a series of different events. We didn’t really know what we were in for. We have gone back to Taiwan several times and fell in love with the place, and the people we work with in the orphanage are really good people. For us, even with adoption, you just feel so connected with these kids and they become your own very quickly
Are they all LEGO fans like you?
Yes. In fact I am here with my daughter and she is building LEGO right now.
Where did your passion for LEGO come from?
I started building LEGO when I was a kid, like most kids, but when I was younger I was diagnosed with cancer and I went through chemo for about two-and-ahalf years. I missed a lot of school and my parents converted the pool house into a LEGO room and I would spend hours in there, so it was really good therapy for me.