It’s every parents worst nightmare, losing your child in a busy crowded street but for one lucky Mum who recently experienced this, it’s also shown just how kind and caring people can be.
Emma Rooney and her three year old son Leon became separated after he went missing in Liverpool City Centre. The family including the Leon’s two older siblings had been staying in the area in preparation for a big football game. Del Rooney (Leon’s Dad) explains Leon became separated from the family due to large crowds surrounding a march and the couple lost sight of him almost immediately. Del said:
“This is something I never experienced in my life. The whole of Church Street stood still and everyone was like: Right what does he look like? They were not bothered about what they were doing or where they had to be it was all about Leon… I turned round and everyone was coming over to me. They said what’s he wearing… A group of men came up and said ‘three lads will go this way, three will go that way’. I just burst into tears.”
It wasn’t just the public who immediately stopped what they were doing to help find Leon, Del says “the police were fantastic too. There’s so many idiots in the world say things about Liverpool, same with the police, they never get good feedback. There’s so many good things to say about Liverpool but the people are brilliant.”
Overwhelmed by the support they received, Emma took to Facebook to thank everyone including “old , young, teenage and the homeless” who helped them look for Leon and made sure he was returned safety to his family. She continued by saying:
“My heart was broken as he ran off and out of sight and didn’t come back. But the people of Liverpool, strangers who know nothing of me or my family stopped in their tracks to help me find him. You did everything you could and I cannot thank you enough.”
Emma’s heartfelt thank you has since been shared more than 15,000 times and ‘liked’ by around 35,000 people.
