SOME pretty amazing people have done Carpool Karaoke. . . but few as special as these young stars.
Their faces alight with glee, these children with Down’s syndrome are the latest internet sensations.
It is all thanks to a video of them belting out a song in the style of James Corden’s famous Late Late Show segment.
It shows 50 families from across the UK using Makaton — a form of sign language that also uses symbols and speech to aid communication — to follow Christina Perri’s hit A Thousand Years.
The uplifting video — titled 50 Mums, 50 Kids, 1 Extra Chromosome — even caught the attention of James, 39, who said it was “the most beautiful Carpool Karaoke” and it had “made him cry”.
It has since gone viral and been seen more than 500,000 times on YouTube and three million times on Facebook.
Mum-of-three Rebecca Carless, 35, from Coventry, got the idea after seeing videos by the group Singing Hands who do nursery rhymes in Makaton.
Rebecca, who stars in the video with four-year-old son Archie, says: “We wanted everyone to see it. The idea is we are just normal mums, we love our kids, they love us, and they are just like other four-year-olds. We wouldn’t change them.”
The video has been released to mark World Down Syndrome Day tomorrow, and is accompanied by the hashtag #wouldntchangeathing - a nod to how 97 per cent of parents with Down’s children feel.
Around 750 Down’s babies are born in England and Wales every year.
This year a new advanced test for Down’s is being introduced.
The start of non-invasive prenatal testing raises the prospect of people with Down’s disappearing from society as terminations are expected to rise.
But video star Jeni Perkins, 28, reveals that she and husband Nick, 30, refused all the tests when they were pregnant with Blythe, now three.
Jeni, a support worker from Halifax, says: “It just didn’t matter to us.
“When Blythe was diagnosed shortly after her birth, my doctors said they’d never seen anyone look so happy about it. I didn’t care at all — she was perfect.”
Teacher Karen Blencowe, 38, from Southampton, also appears in the video with her daughter Ellie, three.
She says: “I wish I’d seen a video like this one on the day Ellie was born.
"There’s a lot of negativity out there, this would have redressed the balance. It would have given me hope.”
The mums in the video all knew each other from the Facebook group Designer Genes, where every member has a child with Down’s.
Karen Scott, 40, from Motherwell, North Lanarkshire, who stars in the video with daughter Amy, three, and son Lucas, six, says: “We want to celebrate our children for who they are, and enjoy our lives.”
Also showcasing her talents in the video is four-year-old Connie.
Her mum Julie Britton, 46, from Leeds, said: “I love that the video has gone viral.
“Everyone loves it, not just the Down’s syndrome community.
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“It makes people happy — which is exactly how our kids make us feel.
“I read online that someone had asked their nine-year-old what all the kids in the video had in common. She replied, ‘They can all do sign language.’
“Isn’t that amazing? Not Down’s syndrome, not disability, not negativity. They all have an amazing skill.”
- Find out more about Down’s online at worlddownsyndromeday.org.
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