Advertisement

Webcke visits Laidley flood victims

I grew up near a small Darling Downs town similar to Laidley, I knew they'd be doing it tough.

Some here have travelled from the city to help, but for us there was more to the visit.

Two nights ago we ran a story on 11-year-old Autistic boy Andrew McNeish, and how he lost his collection of Thomas the Tank Engine trains.

That touched many people who contacted Seven News wanting to donate - among them was the Shore family, of Narangba.

Their own son Nicholas has Autism and they know how important toys are.

"It's just the biggest thing in the world - It's like a parent losing their house and so we can fill that void and give his toys back to him," mother Erin told me.

Nicholas was reluctant to hand over his collection at first.

"I sorted out the trains for you and I hope you have fun playing with them," he said.

Andrew's parents Gary and Linda have purposely kept him away from the devastation - they wanted to do the toy handover away from the camera.

To me, Laidley's efforts are more than just Queensland spirit, this is small town stuff at it's best - they just get on with it.