A young Carrigart boy has been given the surprise of his life after one of his television heroes sent him a personal message.
Oisin Roberts Browne is a super-fan of the hit children’s TV show Balamory.
His uncle Eric Roberts wanted to give the sixteen year old, who has autism and cerebral palsy, a toy from the BBC show.
But despite a massive trawl of shops and online, Eric simply couldn’t find one.
But Eric went even further and managed to get a personal message from the show’s main character Miss Hoolie played by actress Julie Wilson Nimmo from the make-believe Scottish village which achieved cult status between 2002 and 2005.
Now the video of Eric showing Oisin the message from Miss Hoolie has gone viral!
In a touching exchange on Instagram, Eric explained that his nephew was Miss Hoolie’s biggest fan and she kindly obliged in sending a personal message to Oisin.
Eric shared a video detailing his mission and later showing Eric’s reaction on TikTok and it has gone viral.
Eric said: “My nephew has cerebral palsy and he is absolutely obsessed with a show called Balamory, ‘what’s the story in Balamory wouldn’t you like to know’.
“More specifically he is obsessed with a character from that show called Miss Hoolie.
“Oisin really wanted a talking teddy or a talking Miss Hoolie but it doesn’t exist and believe me I’ve looked.”
The pair can be seen searching a toy show searching for a Miss Hoolie Doll with Eric saying “We’ll be in here all day looking for Miss Hoolie I think.”
The TikTok then goes back to Eric speaking to the camera saying: “So there is this soft toy called Miss Hoolie that exists but it doesn’t talk and he likes interactive toys.
“I went on a detective mission and I happened to find Miss Hoolie on Instagram.
“I messaged her and Miss Hoolie replied.“I couldn’t get a talking toy Miss Hoolie but I got the real Miss Hoolie.”
Eric is then seen sitting with Oisin and says: “Guess who sent Eric a video?”
He then plays the clip with audio coming from his phone.
Actress Julie says “Hi Oisin, it’s Miss Hoolie here” sending Oisin into bursts of laughter!
The TikTok has received over 437,000 views and more than 59,000 likes with thousands of comments lavishing praise on uncle Eric.
Eric explained: “Oisin has autism and cerebral palsy and gets hyper fixated on things.
“Previously it was to go to Croke Park and recently it has been Balamory, he will become fixated with the object so he watches Balamory everyday and his favourite character was Miss Hoolie.
“It took a bit of Googling to find some dolls but they didn’t talk and Oisin likes interactive toys, there were plush dolls but those wouldn’t cut it either.
“Eventually I found Miss Hoolie on Instagram but I wasn’t sure if it was her so I sent a message, she was wonderful and I think this might have been the best surprise yet, he watched the video three or four times in a row.”
Balamory was a television series that ran from 2002 until 2005 based in the fictional Scottish town.
Tags: