A loving big sister has shared the moment she cheered up her brother, who is self-isolating, by dancing together on either side of a glass window.
Natalie Weston, from Huyton has an “inseparable” bond with her younger brother Jake, 21, who has Down’s syndrome.
But after self-isolation began to “take its toll” on him, Natalie wanted to cheer Jake up in the best way she knew how - by reuniting them and their love of dancing from her mum’s garden, with Jake joining in on the other side of the door.
The heartwarming moment was filmed by the siblings mum and has since gone viral, gaining over 87,000 likes on Twitter alone and thousands of kind messages.
Posting to Twitter, Natalie said: “A week of self isolating had taken its toll on my brother so I decided to cheer him up.
“Glass may have been between us but we danced together, sat and had a chat next to each other. It really is the little things.
“I hope everyone is staying safe and well #thinkoutsidethebox”
Natalie said she borrowed a speaker from a friend who owns a party company and that her mum kept Jake occupied upstairs so the surprise could go ahead.
Dancing to Tina Turner’s ‘Proud Mary’ in the heartwarming video, Natalie said she didn’t intend for it to get such a huge response and that she has been overwhelmed by thousands of positive messages on social media.
She told the ECHO: “Although Jake lives with my mum, he spends a lot of time with me.
“We speak to each other everyday on the phone or on Facetime and we see each other most days, so it’s been really hard, just as much for me as it has been for him.
“It was really taking its toll on him.
“He’s usually in really high spirits but he did start to say he was missing me and missing having contact.
“He usually dances loads and he’d stop dancing as much so we knew he really needed cheering up.”
Natalie said Jake is very social and “it’s a rarity for him to have a night off” as there’s always someone who wants to visit and spend time with him.
She said they danced together for around twenty minutes to other hits from Take That, Camelphat and more before sitting down and having a catch-up on either side of the glass window, which really lifted the spirits of the family.
Natalie said: “I don’t know what the neighbours must have thought but we haven’t had any complaints so far.
“It was lovely just being able to have a dance with him because that’s what we’d normally do.
"Just having a bit of normality has been really hard given the situation."
Natalie said her brother is a "breath of fresh air" and said she just wanted to do what he does for them everyday.
She added: "It was nice to cheer him up because he always cheers us up, no matter what kind of a day you’ve had.
“He is so bright and just a ray of sunshine in such a dark time so it’s nice to be able to return a bit of his joy.
“He’s my brother by blood but he’s my best friend by choice.
“Anyone who knows us knows the bond we have. We’re inseparable.”
Since uploading the video to social media, Natalie said she has received messages from as far as Australia and hopes it will continue to brighten people’s days.
She said: “I didn’t expect this reaction whatsoever.
“The comments have been absolutely amazing and so positive.
“It’s been lovely that we’ve managed to brighten up other people’s day and cheer them up. It brightened mine, Jake's and my mums day too.
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“We need to see more positivity in such hard times and it is really challenging for those who are suffering or vulnerable or the elderly who are used to seeing relatives every day.
“You’ve just got to do all you can to make the best of a bad situation, there’s not much more you can do.”
