A LOCAL mum’s petition aimed at allowing children to play outside with a friend for the rest of lockdown has gained more than 35,000 supporters.

Mary Thorne launched the petition after seeing the effects of lockdown on her five-year-old daughter Chloe.

She said: “We normally have a very happy, grounded little five-year-old, but every single night in January she screamed uncontrollably, saying she wanted to see her friends and family, and it was so hard that it pushed me to set up this petition.”

Also a mother to three-year-old Poppy – who was able to continue attending nursery because of government guidance – she felt it difficult to see the difference between ages.

Mary said: “Chloe’s highlight of the day has been dropping Poppy at nursery.

“Poppy’s little nursery friends have siblings who go to school with Chloe and they see each other at the school gates.

“But then there’s the whole forgotten age group of young primary school children who haven’t been allowed to interact with any other children because they count in the ‘one on one numbers’.”

“It is so difficult – the isolation has just been so hard.

“Many, many people have been breaking the rules – and I don’t judge them, people do what they need to do – but it shouldn’t have to be that way.

“I had lots of people messaging me saying ‘you should come and meet up with us’, but I just wanted somebody to listen and realise this age group had just been forgotten about.

“Strangely, if I only had a three-year-old I can go out for walks, bike rides, anything with other children under five, so they don’t count towards the ‘one on one’.

“It is a huge void they have just missed.

“And they go on and on about children’s mental health – but three, four weeks ago, if they had really listened, this could have been a really easy fix.

“It would have helped so many children and so many parents.

Mary started the Change.org petition just before Children’s Mental Health Week, which ran from February 1 to 7, and said the petition was “very, very topical” throughout the week, but understood the momentum would slow as children returned to school.

She added: “I felt I needed to stand up for these little people who couldn’t stand up for themselves, but there is a massive amount of hope now.

“But to have just had the opportunity to go for a walk with a friend and another little school friend, it would have completely changed the beginning of our year.”

To read Mary’s petition and to sign, see http://chng.it/GscSGP2w