When Henry Wang wrote to Sir David Attenborough to tell him how much he loved his work, little did he expect to get a reply sent back the very next day.
Ten-year-old Henry, a pupil at St Matthew’s Primary School in Ipswich, wrote to the world-renowned naturalist on January 21 and a few days later he was delighted to receive a reply, dated January 22.
Henry has autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and his teachers say he is bright and very lively in the classroom, always wanting to find out facts and ask questions.
However after it was recommended to Henry’s mother Billie that she should try getting him to watch Sir David’s acclaimed programmes, they both quickly became committed fans.
So much so that Henry wrote to the 88-year-old earlier this year, just to tell him how much he had enjoyed his series and had been inspired by his travels around the natural world, with no expectation of a response from the busy broadcaster.
To his surprise, Henry received a speedy response from Sir David – a personalised letter thanking him for his note and autographs on his DVD covers.
Henry said: “I just wanted to tell him that I love his programmes – well, me and my mum love them – and made a top-five list of my favourite ones. They have really interesting information about really rare creatures.
“He’s been out in the wild for 60 years and brought all the wonders of the natural world to TV and everybody can watch it. That’s really good. He is my only hero.
“My favourite is Alive; that’s about dinosaurs and looks really real and all the dinosaurs are interesting and it contains stories about how they were put in the Natural History Museum.
“In his letter back, he said he was really pleased that I loved his programmes. He signed the DVD cases in different colours.”
Ms Wang said that when Henry received the reply and the autographs so quickly they had been “over the moon”. “I jumped up and was so, so happy and Henry was very happy too.
“I’m glad he looks up to Sir David Attenborough – he even told me that he couldn’t understand why other people’s idols were pop stars like One Direction.
“It started when his teacher, Mrs Furniss, used to play the DVD early in the morning at school and she told me about him and I started to buy the DVDs one by one – it’s so educational and interesting for Henry.
“He loves to watch them, he is calm and can really focus and concentrate. He has learned a lot.
“I don’t think he expected a reply, he just wanted to say that he admires him and he wrote about how he feels about the programmes – usually he only writes the facts and doesn’t know to write about how he feels.”
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here