Remember little Rio who did a dashing job advertising for Primark?
The 22-month-old toddler was born with Down’s syndrome, breathing problems, and a whole host of other health conditions which kept him in hospital for 45 nights.
In that time, he had to have surgery as his bowel had perforated and Bristol Children’s Hospital found that Rio’s windpipe was being severely compressed by vessels from the heart. He had two millimetres to breathe through.
Despite the tough start coming into the world, Rio has come leaps and bounds.
Earlier in the year, the youngster was signed up with Zebedee Management, an agency specialising in models who are different. The opportunity saw him work with the likes of fashion giants Primark.
And once again with his winning smile, Rio has now become a model for another behemoth brand: Amazon.
Or to be more specific, Amazon Smile – which is the online marketplace’s charitable browser, which donates 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) to your chosen charity.
And for Rio, that chosen charity is the Bristol Children’s Hospital charity The Grand Appeal (which encompasses other charitable branches such as The Wallace & Gromit’s Children’s Foundation and Cots for Tots).
We caught up with Rio’s parents who couldn’t be more proud.
‘All of this is such a breath of fresh air because we honestly thought the worst when we were first told,’ his dad, Anthony, tells Metro.co.uk.
‘And we are opening the door to many others like him to show yes you can make a difference!’
Mum Kimberly added: ‘We are all so proud of Rio, it’s wonderful to see children with disabilities being represented in mainstream advertising.
‘Like all parents, we just want Rio to be happy and to feel included and we will continue to advocate for him.
‘Hopefully, Rio is helping to show other children that regardless of ability, all children are beautiful and can achieve amazing things.’
Anthony added that not only does it mean a lot to their little family, but it’s also encouraging to other parents and children who can see themselves reflected in mainstream advertising.
‘We get messages all the time and loads from strangers saying how we have inspired them it’s amazing that we have had this kind of effect,’ he said.
‘Rio’s future is to keep pushing the boundaries and do whatever he wants to do.’
You can follow his journey on his Instagram page where Anthony and Kimberly update followers on all of the toddler’s boss moves.
Or find out more about The Grand Appeal, which works with the animation studio that has bought us the beloved Wallace & Gromit.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/16/little-boy-with-downs-syndrome-is-now-an-amazon-model-after-primark-success-11916314/
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