A group of 50 mums of kids with Down’s syndrome has created a Carpool Karaoke-style video to raise awareness of children with an extra chromosome.
Mums who were part of the Facebook group “Designer Genes”, who all had a child with Down’s syndrome born in 2013/14, were inspired by a Singing Hands Carpool Karaoke video signed with Makaton, a simplified form of British Sign Language which is designed to help hearing people with learning or communication difficulties using signs alongside speech.
The mums decided to use the track ‘A Thousand Years’ by American singer Christina Perri. To get permission to feature the song, the group contacted Perri via her husband, Paul Costabile on Twitter. Within an hour, the LA-based couple replied declaring their support for the idea.
50 mums got involved and filmed themselves in their cars, and a dad edited the clips together to make the final video.
Angela Mui, 44, who lives in Scotland, is in the video with her three-year-old son Stephen. “I took part in the video primarily to help change attitudes towards Down’s syndrome,” she told HuffPost UK. “The UK has a 90% termination rate for babies diagnosed with Down’s syndrome in the womb.
“I want people to know having a child with Down’s syndrome isn’t scary; in fact it is a wonderful adventure; full of joy, love and yes some challenges, just like having any typical child.
“I think the video is so powerful because it is just a group of mummies and children getting together to have some fun signing along to a song. We all have something in common which bonds us together. We wouldn’t change our children but we want to change the world for our children.”
“We believe this video really does have the potential to be the most viewed across the world on World Down’s syndrome Day this year, so we urge everyone to share share share to help us make it a success,” said mum Becky Carless (below), who took part in the video and is mum to four-year-old Archie.
The video, called ’50 Mums | 50 Kids | 1 Extra Chromosome’ went live on YouTube on Friday 16 March. The creators are encouraging people to share the video with the hashtag #wouldntchangeathing.