WOOLWORTHS may be facing extinction, but one little boy still has hope after he wrote to the Queen asking her to save his favourite shop.

Tom Potter

WOOLWORTHS may be facing extinction, but one little boy still has hope after he wrote to the Queen asking her to save his favourite shop.

Patsy Stammers was amazed when her nine-year-old grandson Connor Chaplain told her he had just written a letter to Her Majesty.

The Coombs Middle School pupil told her he had decided to write to the Queen because she would be able to stop the store from closing.

In a letter addressed to “The Queen, Buckingham Palace, London,” Connor said: “Dear Your Majesty, please can you help to save Woolworth's.

“It is a lovely shop and I enjoy my visits there with my grandma. The people are very kind and it is sad. I wish you a Merry Christmas. Thank you.”

Connor, who lives near Stowmarket, came up with the idea of writing the letter on his own, and went to the postbox to deliver it himself.

Mrs Stammers, 68, said: “Isn't it lovely that someone as young as that thinks so much of his sovereign that he writes to her like that?

“We just could not stop laughing. Can you imagine the conversation with Prince Philip around the breakfast table?

“I can imagine the Queen saying something, but I would not like to hazard a guess at what Prince Philip would say back!”

Mrs Stammers is well-known in the community after she won two People's Awards in 2006 - the People's Champion and the Outstanding Service awards, for her charity work.

She was rewarded with dinner at the Galley restaurant in Ipswich, a weekend in the executive suite at Hintlesham Hall, and a helicopter ride, which she chose to share with two local disabled children.

Mrs Stammers has four grandchildren who she sees every day after school, and she often used to take them to the Stowmarket branch of Woolworths as a treat after their shopping trips.

But Connor is not only hoping to save his favourite shop this Christmas - he also wrote a letter to Father Christmas asking for a new pair of legs for his Grandma, who has trouble walking.

Mrs Stammers said: “I told him not to worry, I do not think they give out spare parts for Grandmas!”