We received a phone call about Isaac that changed our life forever
Videos of Isaac Kearney and his love of Liverpool FC have been viewed by millions.
We received a phone call about Isaac that changed our life forever
The mum of a Merseyside schoolboy whose story is now known across the world has revealed the phone call which changed their lives forever. Over the last few months, six year-old Isaac Kearney from Kirkby has captured the hearts of the region and people across the world.
Isaac was born with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a rare genetic disorder, meaning he develops at a slower rate than other children his age. His mum Melissa and dad Alan have tried to highlight the day-to-day realities for Isaac through social media, gathering over one million followers on TikTok alone, with viewers regularly sending their support to him and his family.
Isaac’s love of Liverpool FC has made him a much-loved member of the club’s fanbase too. He was the star of a video last year that featured Mohamed Salah and Virgil Van Dijk. According to the club it has now been viewed more than 122 million times across the globe.
In the video, Isaac was surprised at his school with an unannounced visit by Salah and Van Dijk. Speaking to the ECHO, Melissa, 33, said she is delighted at how the last few months have gone. She knew Isaac would have the condition before he was born.
We received a phone call about Isaac that changed our life forever
Melissa said: ”It was picked up on like a scan towards the end of my pregnancy and from there I had loads of tests done. We thought at first he might have down’s syndrome, but when we got the results back, we were told he didn’t have that. The doctors said, we’ll keep hold of the sample that we’ve took, we’ll leave it a little bit longer and see if anything else shows on it.
“Then we got a call from the hospital saying, actually, you need to come in, we need to meet with you. There was a medical team waiting to sit down with us and that’s when they told us about his diagnosis. I think I was about 34, 35 weeks pregnant. That phone call completely changed our life.”
On how Isaac’s condition affects him, she added: “From a young age, Isaac was having daily physio sessions because he couldn’t he couldn’t even lift his own head.
“He’s got low muscle tone, so even to this day Isaac struggles walking upstairs. He can’t walk very far. He relies on me and his dad for most things, and I know people don’t see that side of it, because he’s just so positive, but at home, for physical care or anything like that, he relies on us for everything.
We received a phone call about Isaac that changed our life forever
“He can’t even take his own socks off his feet because he’s just that weak. It has been a bit of a struggle. He’s deaf in both ears, so he wears hearing aids in both. He is delayed compared to other children, so he’s not really learning much in school.
“He’s so tiny and I don’t think people realise that. Even when the people from Liverpool Football Club came out to interviews, they got the shock of their lives when they saw how small he was, because he’s more like a one and a half to a two year-old rather than a six to seven year-old.”
However, there is another side to Isaac which those who have watched his videos may have picked up on. Melissa said: ”He’s just the cheekiest little boy you’ll ever meet. He has no filter but is so funny, so full of life.”
His love of Liverpool was apparent very early on, both at home and when he was taken to Anfield. Melissa said: “He’s obsessed with them, to be honest. Really early on, he picked it up from TV when his dad was watching the game. Then we started trying to get him tickets for the game. He loves the atmosphere. He loves everything about it.”
The club reached out to Melissa last year about Isaac’s love of the club. She said: “They had been monitoring Isaac’s videos and just absolutely loved his videos. They wanted to do something special for him.
“As you can imagine, it was a massive shock to us. We were like, 100%, that would be a dream come true for him. It just went from there really.”
After the surprise visit to his school from Salah and Van Dijk, Isaac then visited the AXA Training Centre, where he met Arne Slot and the rest of his squad. In heartwarming scenes, Isaac’s love for the players he idolises was reciprocated. Ahead of the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities, he was invited to be a mascot at Anfield when Slot’s side beat Manchester City in the Premier League last December.
Despite his newfound fame, Isaac has hilariously maintained his laid-back, care free attitude. Laughing, Melissa said: “He went back to school and everyone was going, wow, did the players come to school to see you, what was it like?
“And he’s just so oblivious to it all. You don’t get nothing from him. He just shrugged his shoulders and was like, yeah, it was all right. He’s living his best life.”
Earlier this week, Isaac had a special guest come to his house when Jamie Webster turned up and they were videoed singing together with their guitars.
For Melissa, it’s also been heartwarming how the videos have increased awareness about Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome. The initial video with Isaac attracted more than 12 million social media engagements and led to a five-year high in the number of Google searches associated with Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome.
Melissa said: “That’s obviously been the best part about it. It was so rare that every time we asked the doctor about it or a health professional. The answer was always we don’t know, we’re not sure.
“We went through a phase when he was a little bit younger and everyone just automatically assumed he had down syndrome. Nobody knew. Obviously I’d never heard of it up until the point when I was told.
“I got a bit frightened when they told me. Probably the best thing that we’ve got from this attention is raising all this awareness. It’s been amazing.” You can find out more about Isaac on Instagram via isaac_kearney or on TikTok via melissakearney65.
