Vernice Jones took her daughter Pixie Rose, six, who has Down’s syndrome, to a playground after school pick-up
Pixie Rose Jones has Down’s syndrome and was laughed at by some children in the park.(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
A mother has praised the ‘heartwarming’ actions of a group of girls who stepped in to support her daughter after she was mocked at a local park.
Vernice Jones had taken her six year old daughter Pixie Rose, who has Down’s syndrome, to enjoy the playground following the school run.
Conscious that her daughter attracts ‘stares’, Vernice described visiting an unfamiliar location as ‘a massive worry’, yet she hadn’t expected her daughter to be taunted by children only marginally older, reports the Manchester Evening News.
“Normally we go to the same park, which is local to our house, but I had a day off so I picked her up from school and went to a park a bit closer,” said Vernice. “It’s always a massive worry for me because I know that when people don’t know her, she gets stared at.
“She’s in a trolley because she struggles walking, or in a pram, but she’s getting a little big for that now, and some girls were laughing and pointing and stuff at her.”, reports the Mirror.
The mum-of-four revealed she approached and spoke to the adults supervising the girls, saying: “They brought them over, but they didn’t really do much after that, there was no apology or anything.” Yet it was the reaction from another group of young girls at the park that truly moved Vernice, who works in Early Years.
Pixie Rose Jones. (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Pixie with her brother Rocco. (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
“We’d seen these other girls and they let Pixie on the seesaw and I said ‘thank you for being really kind with Pixie’. I explained what had happened and one of the girls said ‘I don’t understand why they were laughing, she’s just human like us’, which was a big thing for me from girls at primary school, it was really lovely.
“Sometimes we do get laughs and stares and people pointing at her, which is really sad, so to hear that was really heartwarming and really lovely just to understand there are children out there that know that not every child is the same, that children are different and unique and Pixie definitely is that.”
Vernice reveals life has been an enormous struggle, and they came terrifyingly close to losing Pixie altogether when she suffered a cardiac arrest at just four months old.
“We’ve spent her whole life fighting and she’s spent her whole life fighting,” she said. “The cardiac arrest led to open heart surgery so we lost her for a short while.
“Not long after that, I passed my driving test to get to appointments, which are quite often now, and then she had her mobility car taken off her, so we were fighting that. And we were fighting to get Pixie into a school that she needed to be in, so life has just been hard in general.” She described her daughter, who is hard of hearing and wears hearing aids, as ‘a cheeky little girl who is always so happy and brings joy to so many lives’ including her two sisters Madison, 20 and Poppy, 17, as well as 13 year old brother Rocco.
“Pixie lives with myself, her dad Martin and her siblings, who have always been her biggest supporters right from birth when she was a birth diagnosis, so quite a shock for us.
“They are the most favourite people in her life. She loves them so much and they love her and have her back always.”
Despite encountering numerous health challenges, Pixie, a Year 1 pupil at Royal Cross Primary School for Deaf Children in Preston, is thriving academically, where every lesson is taught in British Sign Language, a language she has now completely mastered.
She has a love for swimming and is a member of a special needs cheerleading squad at Infinity Cheer in Leyland. Her parents have been told that she will need additional heart surgery down the line, although no specific timeframe has been provided.
“Pixie likes to go swimming on a Sunday morning as she struggles with pains in her legs due to hypermobility and physio have said this will help her,” said her mum, who is appealing the decision to remove Pixie’s mobility car.
“She also goes cheerleading. It’s the one hobby I’ve found that’s inclusive so she sees people just like her and the exercises she does also help the pains she gets in her legs.” The mother-of-four said she approached and spoke to the guardians accompanying the girls, adding: “Her coach is called Lexie and she’s been amazing with her. They use sign language and have so much patience, she also has a friend there in a wheelchair and he looks after her while they are there.”
Pixie with mum Vernice Jones. (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Pixie with dad Martin Taylor(Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Following the incident at Lostock Hall Park, Vernice took to social media to share some details, hoping to track down the parents of the young girls who had stepped in to help.
“They were so lovely with her! I just wanted to let you know you have done a great job of raising them!” she wrote in the post.
A number of parents came forward to confirm their daughters had been part of the group and had told them about ‘the cute little girl on the park’.
Leanne Yates, whose 10 year old daughter Elissa was amongst them, said: “She told me when she got home from the park that she had been playing with a cute little girl on the park and that others were being nasty. She didn’t see that she had done anything special as everyone should be treated the same.”
Elissa Yates, one of the girls who stepped in to help. (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Thea Schultz, one of the girls who stepped in to help. (Image: Manchester Family / MEN)
Sharon Romain, whose daughter Thea Schultz, also 10, was part of the group alongside friends Phoebe Blaney and Scarlett Millen-ward, said: “I am extremely proud of her and although I do feel it should be the norm for all, she does have the compassion and kindness to others.”
Pixie has already established herself as something of a TikTok sensation, amassing over 16,000 followers on her Pixies Down syndrome journey account. Vernice disclosed that she took a hiatus from the platform following a barrage of unpleasant messages from trolls, but has since made her return and is once again spreading positivity. “People say daily that she helps them get through their day and puts a smile on their face, which I really love,” she said.
“She came off for a little while, as it was round the time she lost her mobility car so a lot was going on, but we had so many messages off people saying that Pixie brought joy to them as they had lost their children with Down syndrome and Pixie gives them a reason to smile, so I felt it was only fair I share her smile with the world.”
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