Bury St Edmunds 8-year-old Riley to trick-or-treat around Howard estate after missing out yesterday

A boy with down’s syndrome has been given the chance to go trick-or-treating a day late after an accident at school meant he missed out last night.

Eight-year-old Riley, from Bury St Edmunds, missed out on yesterday’s spooky antics due to suffering a cut to his head at school in Ipswich which resulted in an emergency trip to A&E.

He was devastated that the hospital trip had ruined his Halloween plans to dress up as a skeleton and go trick-or-treating with his mum Ashleigh Bailey.

However, Ashleigh, 26, came up with an ingenious plan to ensure her son could still knock on doors and collect sweets like other children had done the night before.

She said: “Trick-or-treating was the first thing he asked about when I got to the hospital and it literally broke my heart to tell him we couldn’t go.

“By the time we got home it would have been dinner time and then bedtime - there just wasn’t enough time to go out.

“With his down’s syndrome, he struggles to understand when plans change like this - he had his costume ready, we’d been talking about for days, and in his head he just thought ‘why can’t we go?’”

“I posted on Facebook just to see if anyone had any sweets left over and maybe he could knock on one or two doors down our road - but the post just completely took off.”

Ashleigh’s post received more than 100 comments of encouragement for Riley’s late Halloween venture and he is now preparing to trick-or-treat at more than 30 houses around the Howard estate in Bury St Edmunds.

Some residents have left their decorations out an extra day for Riley’s visit while others went out of their way to buy his favourite sweets for him to enjoy.

“It’s just been amazing,” Ashleigh said.

“I’ve had so many people reach out with their addresses and we’ve got them all down on a list to go to later tonight.

“He’s so excited about it - he went to bed with the biggest smile on his face last night after knowing he could still take part in everything.

“He is going to be absolutely spoilt rotten.”