Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney donate thousands to young disabled Wrexham fan

The parents of a disabled Wrexham fan were "blown away" when they discovered a £10,000 donation from the club's Hollywood owners to adapt their home.

Charlotte and Aaron Perrin’s son Louis, four, was born with TUBA1A, which is a genetic condition which means he has painful leg spasms, limited mobility, epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

However, he has always remained positive and loves watching football matches, especially when Wrexham AFC play.

His parents were “shocked” to see a £10,000 donation on their fundraising page from Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on Friday, 9 February, to help towards adapting their home in Wrexham.

Mrs Perrin, 32, who works in the emergency services, said: “Louis’ carer screenshotted the donation page and was like, ‘oh my God, look at that’, and then I tried to get in touch with my husband.”

Mr Perrin, 32, who is a headteacher, added: “I was at work and was sitting in the staff room and saw I had two missed calls from Charl and then a message from one of my governors saying, ‘have you seen this?’

“I couldn’t contain it. I just told everyone in work straight away.

“We were all amazed and so pleased and we’ve had friends ringing and crying on the phone.

“We were totally blown away by their generosity really. We were just in shock.”

The family are trying to £40,000 to build a downstairs bedroom and wet room for Louis. They also hope to make the garden more accessible.

“We’ve gone through two sets of plans with the local council and there has been no funding available due to the cost of the project, so to see the community donate, it has given us more hope that we are going to achieve our target,” Mr Perrin said.

Mrs Perrin added: “We just want him to be as independent and safe as he can be at home, and at the moment we have loads of temporary equipment, which can be a challenge as he is continuing to grow.”

Both Mr and Mrs Perrin spoke about how much joy football brings to their son.

Mr Perrin said: “When he was a baby, he would watch football on the TV a lot and its been brilliant for me as a dad to watch him be taken in by the colours, the noise and the cheering.

“Even though his speech is quite delayed, he was able to chant and cheer and it’s really helped him a lot with his speech and language.”

“He just feels the atmosphere and I just love sitting and watching him at the matches because he is in his element,” added Mrs Perrin.

In March , Wrexham Police FC, which is made up of members of North Wales Police who play off-duty, plan to take on North Wales Dragons for a charity match to continue raising money for Louis’ fundraiser.

Mr Perrin said Louis is to attend and thanked Wrexham Police FC for publicising the cause.

“I think it really was because of them that Ryan and Rob got involved and it was also so nice to see other celebrities like Nick Knowles leave messages of support,” he added.

“By sharing our story, we also hope to show that we are not a unique case.

“There’s so many families with either half finished builds or they have not started building at all and they’re selling up or having to give up work to care for their disabled children as they cannot access funding.”

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