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Viewers of the BBC’s popular series The Repair Shop found themselves in tears within minutes of the Christmas special, due to a story about a young boy who died of cancer.
The show follows a team of specialists who help to fix personal items and heirlooms brought in by members of the public.
In the special that aired on Christmas Eve (24 December), guest Jo Thomas arrived with a record player she wanted repaired by the team. It was the last gift her son, Ben, gave to her before his death from cancer.
She explained: “He bought me this with his own money, because music is a big thing for us… we used to dance round. And as soon as you put the record player on, he’d start beaming at you.”
Jo said she and her partner took Ben to hospital after noticing he didn’t seem himself on his 10th birthday, and she spotted heat radiating from his leg just above his knee.
After tests, doctors told the family it was cancer. Unfortunately, Ben reacted badly to radiotherapy, then underwent chemotherapy which didn’t work. Doctors then amputated Ben’s right leg up to his right hip.
“In the hospital, he never once moaned,” Jo recalled, telling Jay Blades and Mark Stuckey about her son’s amazing determination to learn how to walk again.
Ben apparently even fibbed to his classmates that a shark had bitten his leg off.
Ben before his cancer diagnosis
(BBC)
The family were later struck with the news that Ben’s cancer was now terminal, as it had spread to his lungs.
That Christmas, he was shopping with his dad when Ben spotted the record player, and told his dad that he wanted to buy it for Jo.
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Jo revealed that Ben died the following January, aged 11.
Ben, subject of a heartbreaking segment in The Repair Shop Christmas special, during his cancer treatment
(BBC)
“I really felt I would never celebrate Christmas again,” Jo said. “And we do, we celebrate every year. We have beautiful memories, even those intertwined with upset, they’re still beautiful.
“Each time I look at [the record] player I think of Ben.”
(BBC)
Stuckey especially seemed moved by Ben’s story, commenting as he grew tearful: “It’s hard to imagine that an 11-year-old boy, Ben, actually bought this for his mum, knowing he wasn’t going to be around all these years later, for her to enjoy… it’s got me going!”
On social media, fans shared how moved they had been by Jo’s story of her son.
“The Repair Shop. Ahem just got something in my eye,” one fan wrote, while another remarked: “I am ALREADY crying at The Repair Shop Christmas special.”
Mark Stuckey with the record player
(BBC)
“S***, watched The Repair Shop. Now sobbing. Ruined my mascara,” another said.
One viewer wrote: “Between the Antiques Roadshow and The Repair Shop this evening I am a Christmas wreck.”
“Blubb Fest Alert,” one fan warned. “The Repair Shop now BBC1. This lady brought her son’s favourite record player that doesn’t work. Her son passed with cancer at the age of 10 they are going to try and fix it. That’s me now.”
“You’ve got me so early in the programme, god bless young Ben,” another fan said.
Later in the episode, Mark showed how he had managed to add legs to the record player at Jo’s request, to help avoid exacerbating her arthritis, and fix the lid.
Jo and Ben’s dad, Darren, later arrived to see his work, and were both visibly moved by the result.
“Thank you so very much,” Jo told the team after putting a record on (”Slipping Through My Fingers” by Abba) to see how it was working.
“We’re going to have family around [this Christmas] and we’ll be dancing to it.”
