Six-year-old Bayley Hancock loves Asda Classic BBQ sauce so much that he has it with most meals – so when he was running low and his mum Charlie Day was struggling to find any more she contacted our Gosport store in a desperate plea for help.
Charlie spoke to the store's community champion Rachel Webber, who she knows, and Rachel got in touch with other nearby stores to see if they could help.
After hearing that our Fareham store had just received a delivery, Rachel managed to get hold of eight bottles for him the next day – much to Bayley's delight.
Charlie said: "I was down to half of my last bottle and could not find any anywhere. I was panicking. Charlie's on the autism spectrum and he's had the fixation with the sauce for about a year now. We were at a barbecue and he had some by accident and that was it. He has it with everything now! If he has a ham sandwich at lunchtime he has to have the BBQ sauce with it. Fish fingers, pizza you name it. He won't eat his dinner unless it's got Asda's own BBQ sauce on the plate.
"I knew Rachel from my time with the charity Square Pegs so I messaged her for help. When she phoned me the next day to say she'd found some I was so relieved. I told Bayley and straight away he was really happy. When he came into store with me to get it he was jumping up and down.
"Rachel and the team are amazing. I love them all. To get that little bit of help and understanding from a store like Asda restores your faith in humanity again."
Rachel says she was only too happy to help.
She said: "When you have a child on the autism spectrum it can be really hard when there is change in their routine. The smallest change can make a huge difference, so I made it my mission to find some for Bayley."
Rachel was in our nearby Fareham store when she spotted they'd just had a delivery of the BBC sauce.
She said: "I grabbed eight bottles for Bayley and gave his mum a quick call to let her know. Then myself and our store manager Stuart invited them in to pick them up.
"Bayley was really quite excited. I kept taking the bottles out of the bag and his face kept lighting up. Hopefully I've made that family's life just that little bit nicer. You don't become a community champion if you don't want to make a difference do you?
"Hopefully the bottles should keep Bayley happy for a while and take some stress away from his mum."
