Published on: 21 April 2020
Little Harry Burlison’s rainbow art is worthy of a medal – and he has one to prove it.
The rainbow has become a symbol of hope during the coronavirus pandemic and Army Reserve Colonel and Sunderland Royal Hospital Consultant Vascular Surgeon Ben Banerjee was so impressed when he saw six-year-old Harry’s giant artwork on social media that he presented him with one of the medals he was awarded for a deployment working in a hospital in Afghanistan.
Mr Banerjee hand-delivered the medal to the family home in Silksworth, Sunderland, along with a letter in which he said the rainbow ‘made me feel fantastic, especially as things are quite hard at work at the moment’ and added ‘Thank you so much for your work and keep looking after your Mummy and Daddy’.
Harry’s dad, Gareth, is an Orthopaedic Practitioner and mam Helen is a Sister on the day case unit at Sunderland Royal Hospital. Both of his grandmothers, his uncle and aunty also work for South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust.
Gareth said: “Harry understands that his mam and dad have to go to work when some other parents don’t. He’d seen rainbow pictures in windows and wanted to do one of his own. I did the outline on the drive and he coloured it all in himself with chalks. He was amazed when Ben gave him the medal. He absolutely loves it and we’re going to frame it, along with the letter, for his bedroom wall.”
Mr Banerjee said: “This little lad produced this massive rainbow and, clearly, did it virtually all on his own and I thought it was such a magnificent effort that it deserved special acknowledgment.”
