Who’s a pretty lucky boy then?
JOY AS YOUNG SHAY REUNITED WITH LOST TOY PARROT
AN appeal to help a boy find a toy parrot he left on the bus has been successful thanks to an M.E.N. reader.
Sharon Gallier, from Newton Heath, said her 15-year-old son Shea bought the toy parrot from the Christmas markets.
Shea, who has autism, had been waiting all year to buy the parrot after seeing it at last year’s markets.
“He said to me ‘I hope somebody nice did find my parrot.’ It was making my heart bleed for him,” Sharon told the M.E.N. last week.
After the M.E.N. appealed for the toy’s return, a man in Blackley – more than six miles away from Longsight, where Shea got off the bus – called in to say he had it.
Sharon said she was not able to discover how the man ended up with the toy parrot, as he did not speak much English, but she was ‘so grateful’ it had been found.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” Sharon said.
“I really didn’t think we would actually be able to find it.”
Sharon and Shea went to collect the parrot – and the teenager had a special treat for his hero.
Sharon said: “Shea brought him a trifle we had made earlier in the day as compensation for the parrot!
“He squeezed the parrot so tight all the way home.”
Sharon said she has been ‘overwhelmed’ with the response to the original story, with kind readers offering to buy Shea a new cuddly parrot.
She said: “One woman said she wanted to buy a replacement for Shea.
“When I told her we had managed to find the parrot, she told us she wanted to buy us tickets for Chester Zoo so that Shea could go and see the real parrots.
“His grandma was crying because she could not believe how kind people had been.”
Sharon said it’s unlikely that the parrot, which Shea has now named Squawk, will be leaving her son’s side any time soon.
“I just want to say thank you to everyone who has offered to help us or has helped to share the story,” she added. “Shea bought the parrot himself, which is a big thing for him to do, and we’re just so thankful that we have been able to reunite him with it.”