Five-year-old Jake Law loves his top from George so much he wants to wear it all the time – so colleagues at our Milton Keynes store were determined to track down some larger versions for him when his mum Danni found out it had been discontinued and she couldn’t hold of a replacement.
Jake has non-verbal autism, which means he likes routine and familiarity, so Danni put out an appeal on Facebook to see if anyone had a spare top.
Suzanna Thorne, the community champion at our Milton Keynes store, spotted the post and teamed up with our George colleagues to track down the last remaining tops, including some in a range of sizes to wear as Jake grows up – and there were smiles all round when Danni and Jake called in at the store to collect them.
Danni said: "I'm in shock! It's the nicest thing anyone has ever done for us.”
"This is going to change our lives – we'll be able to have some spare tops for him to change into whenever we go out.
"Jake will be in his tops for years to come. The sizes Asda have given us go all the way up to age 14, so we won't have to worry about running out of them. He was quite surprised – he definitely recognised them and he had a look on his face which said 'they're mine!'.
Jake lives with Danni, dad James and older sister Holly, who's nine and is also autistic.
Danni said: "He has severe learning difficulties and gets very upset if you change his routine.
"About a year ago my husband James bought these tops. Jake wears them constantly – he's only happy when he's wearing them. I think he likes the feel of them and the style.
"We've tried so many others but these are the only ones he will wear. He wears them to school and then changes into his uniform, he wears them for bed – he lives in them.
"We only had a couple of them and they were deteriorating because he wears them so much. I was worried he'd soon grow out of them, so to get these larger ones is just brilliant."
Suzanna said: "I spotted the appeal on a buy and sell page and replied that I work for Asda and would do everything I could do to help.
"I feel quite emotional, to help out a little boy who has autism and faces certain challenges is absolutely brilliant. I'm just so glad we've been able to help. It was lovely to meet Danni and Jake and see what a difference this will make."
Matt Danbury, George merchandise manager for older boys, said: “It was a complete end-to-end team George mission with both our merchandising and buying teams coming together to identify the product, as once we heard Jake's story we just knew we had to help.
"The tops were discontinued in December, but we managed to track some down in one of our depots and then arranged for it to be delivered to Jake and his mum."
