Sunderland schoolboy named in Queen's Birthday Honours List for helping key workers

Sixteen-year-old Theo Wride, from Ashbrooke, Sunderland, is to receive a British Empire Medal (BEM) “for services to the community and key workers in Sunderland during Covid-19”.

After his GCSE exams were abandoned following the March outbreak, Theo decided to combine his unexpected spare time with his passion for engineering and began producing personal protective equipment (PPE) on his 3D printer at home.

He was inspired to help his grandmother, Elin Wride, who had just moved into a care home in the south of England, and because his parents are both frontline workers.

As well as sending completed visors to staff caring for his gran, he made them for St Bede’s Medical Centre, in Sunderland, where his mother, Monica Dimigen, is a GP, and Sunderland Eye Infirmary, where his father, Nicholas Wride, is a consultant.

With key workers struggling to obtain PPE at the start of the crisis, demand quickly snowballed and Theo raised £3,000 through an online crowdfunding campaign so that he could buy additional printers and materials.

This allowed him to increase production from around six visors a day to a maximum of 70 across a 24-hour period.

Theo, who has two younger brothers, Alex 14, and Benjy, 12, recalled: “At one stage I had to wear ear plugs at night to get to sleep because I could hear the noise the printers were making from outside my bedroom.”

Visors were then delivered to care homes across Sunderland and posted to GP practices nationwide.

While he knew he had been nominated for the medal, Theo, a sixth form student at Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School, admits: “I was surprised when I was told I was going to get one. But it is not just for me. I have received help from family, friends and the 3D printing community.”

The Queen’s Birthday Honours List, which is usually published in June, was delayed because of the pandemic and so that it could acknowledge the response of individuals to the coronavirus crisis.

Theo, a Formula One motor racing fan who is considering a career in engineering, is one of around 450 additions to the original list and is expected to receive his medal at a local Lord Lieutenant’s ceremony once the ongoing situation improves.

He will also be invited to a future Royal garden party at Buckingham Palace.

Dr Dimigen said: “We were surprised and delighted although Theo very much sees it as an award for the 3D printing community.

"I think he was happy that he could actually produce something which could be helpful at the time.”

Other local people to earn an honour include school governor and magistrate Sandra Mason, 59, from South Hetton, who will also receive a BEM “for services to the community in South Hetton”.

The government’s Cabinet Office said: “She has worked tirelessly for three years and overseen huge improvements in South Hetton Primary School, moving from special measures to being in the

top 10% for reading and 8% for writing and maths abilities.”

She has also served as a member of South Hetton Parish Council for two decades, including spells as chair and vice-chair, and as a magistrates’ court chairperson.

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