Wigan schoolboy's efforts to brighten up a care home and honour war heroes

Sandra Shepherd was delighted when 11-year-old Owen Boardman decided to draw dozens of pictures of poppies to be put on display in the windows at Ashwood Residential Care Home in Ashton.

He even used money given to him for his birthday to pay for them to be laminated, so they could be kept clean to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

In a letter to Owen, Mrs Shepherd said: “I have told all the clients about your hard work and we will be extremely proud to have them displayed in the clients’ bedroom windows ahead of Remembrance Day.”

Owen, who attends nearby St Oswald’s Primary School, wanted to do something creative for the home.

His mum Lisa Boardman, from Ashton, said: “We drive past Ashwood every morning going to school and he used to love seeing the rainbows in the windows. At the moment they have all faded and he said it made him sad.

“He asked what he could do to help them decorate. He thought about pumpkins at first, but thought it might encourage trick-or-treaters. He thought about Remembrance Day instead.”

Owen’s great-grandfather fought in Burma, so he knows all about the importance of Remembrance Day, and thought it was particularly fitting as the home is opposite Ashton’s garden of remembrance,

A friend of his mother’s works at Ashwood, so Owen was able to get permission to produce the poppy drawings and found out there are 29 rooms there. He got to work, spending four days drawing all of the poppies and another four days colouring them.

Owen then used his birthday money to get them laminated, so they will not fade, and left them for 72 hours to ensure they were coronavirus-safe before taking them to the home on Liverpool Road. They have now been put on display in the windows at the home, with a few extra poppies given to the Boardman family’s neighbours to put in their own windows.

Mrs Boardman said: “I’m really proud of him. He’s a good little boy. He tries hard to help everybody and he’s keen to bring community spirit - that’s something we have tried to teach him during lockdown.”

Owen enjoyed creating the poppies and he was very pleased to receive the letter from Mrs Shepherd thanking him for his efforts. He said: “It was fun to read it and it was very nice of them to do. It made me feel very proud.”

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