Reality TV personality Chloe Lewis is spearheading a campaign for mandatory protective gloves for children ice skating, following a "terrible accident" that saw her six-year-old son lose part of his finger.
The former The Only Way Is Essex star revealed earlier this month that her son, Beau, suffered the severe injury on New Year's Eve. Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Lewis recounted the distressing moment she received the news, describing it as "the call that no parent ever wants to receive about their child, that they’ve been in a terrible accident."
Beau was taken to the Royal London Hospital, where he underwent surgery to try and reattach the tip of his finger, but the procedure was unsuccessful. "Now we’re in a situation where the finger has gone back on and it hasn’t survived. So yeah, he has lost the top half of his finger," Lewis explained.
She praised her son's resilience, adding: "He’s done really well with it all. He’s taken it in his stride and gone back to school and been excited to show his school friends his finger – he’s been great."
Driven by the desire to prevent similar incidents, Lewis stated: "I don’t want to see any other parent go through what I went through, and child as well." She added: "One day, hopefully, I can tell him (Beau) that we changed the law. I can’t bring back your finger, but one day, we’ve changed the law and made it better for other children – and safer."
Lewis told presenters Susanna Reid and Ed Balls that Beau was wearing gloves on the day of the accident but "took them off for a split second." Although the incident did not occur at a Planet Ice Rink, the company has since announced that protective gloves will be compulsory for children under 12 at their venues from June 1.
Her petition, campaigning for the UK Government to mandate protective gloves for children ice skating, has garnered over 24,000 signatures. With over 10,000 signatures, the Government is now obliged to issue a response, and should it reach 100,000, the matter will be considered for a parliamentary debate.
