Pride of Britain winner Tony, 9, was “hugely excited” when his invitation to the Buckingham Palace party came after he was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the prevention of child abuse
A nine-year-old double amputee who missed the King’s garden party after getting struck in traffic for hours has received a special invitation from the palace to make up for it.
Tony Hudgell, of West Malling, Kent, was “hugely excited” when his invitation to the Buckingham Palace party came after he was awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to the prevention of child abuse in the New Year’s Honours. His adoptive mother Paula said Tony was “disappointed” when a lorry fire on the M20 thwarted his family’s attempt to make it to the event on Wednesday.
She tweeted they would not be able to make it but Tony got a boost just before bedtime after a response from the official royal family account asked whether he might “fancy trying again another day?” The message from The Royal Family account said: “Sorry to hear this, Tony! We were looking forward to seeing you too. Fancy trying again another day? Leave it with us…”
Tony, who has raised £1.8 million for charity and is the youngest person to feature in the New Year Honours List, is now hoping to make the event at a later date, according to Mrs Hudgell. She said: “We came home and by that time we were quite flat. Tony was disappointed. I saw the reply just before Tony went to bed and he went to bed feeling a lot happier.”
“It’s left with the palace now and I am sure we will hear back at some point. We can’t do this year but hopefully, we will in the next one. Hopefully by that time ( they get to the garden party) Tony will be out of his leg frame and he will be able to walk around the palace gardens. That would be our silver lining we hope.”
Around 8,000 people were in attendance for the Sovereign’s Garden Party at Buckingham Palace. Mrs Hudgell said: “We had left home in plenty of time, four hours before we needed to be there, and it was only supposed to take us 90 minutes at most. There was a lorry fire on the M20. We got caught up (with the incident) where the motorway had been shut. We were stranded there for three-and-a-half hours.”
“Initially, we were still hopeful the road might still open but knew it probably wouldn’t as it was such a huge fire. Our thoughts were with the lorry driver and thankfully he was OK. You just have to get on with it. It was a nice day. We were standing on the motorway chatting to other people. Tony was singing and chatting to people.”
Tony’s birth parents Anthony Smith, then 46, and Jody Simpson, 24, had abused him so badly that by six weeks old he had multiple fractures to his limbs. The evil pair failed to seek immediate medical help, instead waiting 10 days, by which time Tony had developed multiple organ failure and septicaemia. Staff at Evelina London Children’s Hospital saved the tot’s life, but he had to have both legs amputated at the knee when he was four.
Brave Tony – who won a Daily Mirror Pride of Britain Award in 2021 and raised thousands for charity – now has a foundation in his name and has a law named after him which has seen child abuser’s like his parents facing longer jail sentences since its introduction last year.
