A WIRRAL mum has told of the “phenomenal” experience of seeing her terminally ill son open more than 27,000 cards sent in by kind-hearted souls to make his sixth birthday one to remember.

When Kelly Magee, from Prenton, appeared for people to send son William a birthday card, she never imagined the response she would get.

Wirral Globe: William Magee with mum Kelly. Picture by Geoff Davies.

Expecting around 20 cards to arrive for William – who celebrated his sixth birthday last Wednesday – Kelly told the Globe she couldn’t be more thankful after thousands of people from every continent sent a card.

Around 500 cards arrived each day. The total now stands at more than 27,000, although Kelly believes there could be close to 30,000 with some packages containing more than one card.

“It’s still sinking in. I’m still in a state of shock – the support we have had is phenomenal,” said Kelly.

 “It’s completely blown me away from one small post on the Facebook page and as I have said all along, I never ever expected to get more than 20 at most - it doesn’t seem real.

“We’ve had cards from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, India, France, America – any country you can think of, we’ve had cards from there.”

One card has even been sent from Antarctica but won’t arrive until October because of the way their mailing system works.

William suffers from Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a muscle wasting condition which affects around 2,500 people in the UK.

Kelly set up the ‘Savewilliam’ Facebook page to raise awareness of his condition and funds to research for treatment.

But New Brighton’s Bubbles World of Play soon picked up on her campaign and with her support, the cards started flooding in.

They also held a private birthday party for William on Friday.

Kelly’s appeal has also been picked up by national newspapers, with radio stations including Heart and Wirral Radio also promoting the campaign on a daily basis.

Personalised cards website Moonpig has also got involved, offering to send a free card to William for anyone who buys a card for themselves.

William was also inundated with generous gifts sent by businesses and listeners of Heart and Wirral Radio – including breakfast with the Liverpool FC team, return flights to visit his grandmother in Paris and a free pass to Chester Zoo.

Kelly said: “I just can’t comprehend what has happened. For an anonymous person to donate the trip to Paris, I certainly never could have expected that.

“If you had told me this would happen when I put that post up on Facebook, I would never have believed you.

“I’ve got to start thinking of ideas now of how to top it for his birthday next year.”

Kelly added: “It’s going to take him months to open them but I intend to make sure that I sit down and read every single one to him.

“We intend to put as much effort into reading them as everybody has into writing and sending them because without people sending them, we wouldn’t have this.”

Duchenne is one of the biggest genetic killers of children.

Sufferers lose the ability to walk between the ages of eight and 12 before quickly losing the use of their upper body muscles, making simple everyday tasks impossible.

In some cases, the heart and diaphragm muscles can fail too in children as young as 10.

Kelly said: “It’s been a whirlwind. It’s just gone so much further than I could have even ever dreamed or imagined and I couldn’t be more thankful.

“I really would love nothing than to be able to thank everybody individually and personally but it would take me years. Also, if I start thanking people, I might miss someone and I don’t want people to think I’m not grateful – I couldn’t be more grateful.

“It’s also raised huge awareness for Duchenne and our Facebook page is getting messages every day and I’m making sure I reply personally to everyone.”