"We miss our grandparents': Sheffield girl's heartbreaking letter to Boris Johnson about coronavirus

Nine-year-old Molly Houseman, from Richmond, wrote to the Prime Minister eloquently expressing the anxieties tormenting the nation’s youngsters, who are missing their friends and grandparents and are terrified about what the COVID-19 outbreak will mean for them and their loved ones.

“Thank you for trying to keep us safe. I think you are doing it wrong. Because I am anxious. And the television is scaring me,” she wrote.

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“People are dying and getting the coronavirus. I think you should make a broadcast for children so we understand and feel less anxious.

“I am unsure about home schooling, people’s hands are getting sore from hot water and soap. Trying to stay at home but we miss our grandparents.”

Molly’s mum Gemma has been homeschooling Molly, her younger sister Eleanor, six, and their older brother Zackary, 11 – who has a number of neurological conditions, including neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder which causes tumours to form on nerve tissue – since Wednesday, March 18.

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The 37-year-old, who works as a catering assistant at Sheffield Hallam University, said Molly had written to Mr Johnson as part of an English assignment she set them ‘to help get their anxieties about coronavirus out’.

“All three of them are very anxious about what’s happening and they’ve been asking lots of questions like how long they’re going to have to stay at home and will we die,” she said.

“They don't know when they’re going to see their grandparents again, other than just through the window. It’s very scary for all of us but especially young children.”

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Gemma said she would find it hard to homeschool her children, who normally attend Woodthorpe Primary School and Handsworth Grange Community Sports College, for the foreseeable future, especially since she has dyslexia.

“We’re trying our best as parents and we just have to take it one day at a time. Don’t force them to spend all their time learning. Make sure they have time to play, and do your best to reassure them and let them know they’re loved,” she added.