Boy, 5, starts litter picking hobby to help protect wildlife

A BOY from Henley is on a mission to keep the town clear of litter to protect pets and local wildlife.

Wilfred Fairweather decided to take up litter picking as a hobby during the school summer holidays and is encouraging others to do the same.

The five-year-old has been patrolling a mile-wide area from his home in Cromwell Road, putting any rubbish he finds into a plastic bag, using a litter-picker.

Wilfred, who attends Moulsford Prep School in Wallingford, has collected one bag of rubbish so far, which was mainly filled with discarded drinks cans and bottles and sweet wrappers.

He is worried animals, such as his seven-month-old puppy, Bessie, a working cocker spaniel, could injure themselves if they step on or ingest litter.

Wilfred goes out with his nanny Naomi Faulkner and has covered the area between his home and Trinity Primary School in Vicarage Road. He said: “I picked up two bits of glass and a Coca-Cola can that somebody dropped. I don’t like animals getting hurt because if they do it won’t be very nice.

“It makes me mad when I see rubbish on the floor, it makes me go crazy that I might step on it and, if I do, it’s my fault, but the animals don’t know why they get hurt.”

He said that if he ever saw anyone littering he would tell them to “don’t do that ever again”.

Wilfred lives with his parents Charlotte, 41, and John, 50, who got Bessie from the charity Dogs for Good to be trained as an assistance dog for their eldest son Samuel, 13, who has cerebral palsy. They have another son Arthur, six.

Dr Fairweather, who is a medical director at a pharmaceutical company, recalls that Wilfred was always interested in keeping the streets clean.

She said: “When he was younger, every time on bin day, he used to follow the bin man and speak to them, thanking them for collecting rubbish.”

Growing up, the family enjoyed active holidays at their holiday home in Cornwall and Wilfred has enjoyed water sports including fishing, paddleboarding and canoeing, and has a caring attitude to the environment.

Mr Fairweather, who is an orthopaedic clinician and has previously worked as a clinical lead for the Team GB Paralympics squad, said his son is giving a voice to animals, as they don’t have one.

“It’s fantastic,” he said. “We encourage our children to think about recycling all the time but especially when we go down to the beach cottage where we encourage them to pick up rubbish on the beach front.

“Even though it’s an estuary that goes into the English Channel, we still get a lot of rubbish washed up on it, so it’s for their protection as well as the dogs.”