Four-year-old Lancaster 'miracle' boy spreads kindness every step of the way

Four-year-old Max Barlow, from Lancaster, signed up for two challenges - Kids for Kindness and I Learned to Sign - from challenge website Award City in October.

Since then he has been busy trying to make the world a better place.

Over the past couple of months Max has been incorporating acts of kindness into his life including doing a bake-off for the Stroke Association and donating £5 of his own money, walking to raise £100 for mental health charities, giving out trick or treat bags to others when Halloween was cancelled and donating some of his toys to those in need.

His mum Kim Barlow said: "I am enormously proud of him! He is an incredible and strong little boy! A little miracle of hope! He was born two months prematurely at seven months and spent two months in neo-natal with constant nurse care and then spent a year under the out-patient children's ward care so seriously this really is a massive achievement and shows how you can really achieve any goal no matter who you are!"

Founder of Award City Kimberley Mason said: "Max was the first person to sign up to one of our challenges and we cannot believe the amount of kind things one little boy has achieved.

"We are so proud of what he has done and think Max is a great role model and we are excited to see what challenge he will take on next."

Kim came up with the idea of Award City after her dance and cheer events business Incredibly Cool Events (ICE) and her summer plans to launch new family event The Kids Festival came to a standstill with the onset of the pandemic.

Not to be deterred she set about starting her new business Award City, which launched in October offering adults and children the chance to make changes in their life through a variety of fun challenges such as Commit to be Fit, Declutter Your World, Kids for Kindness and many more.

For more information on ways to make a difference go online here.