A Derby schoolboy says he will treasure a letter he received from the Queen last month – knowing he was among the last children she ever wrote to.
Bilal Nadeem and his classmates at Murray Park Community School, in Mickleover, were asked to send handwritten letters to people they admire and the 14-year-old wrote to Her Majesty the Queen.
He was amazed when he received a reply from Balmoral Castle written by Phillipa de Pass, lady-in-waiting to the Queen and says he will frame the letter which would have been among the very last to have been sent during her reign.
Bilal said: “The letter feels more special now because of what’s happened since and it’s always going to be a memento of her having passed away.
“I was very surprised and shocked when I heard she’d died, especially so soon after her jubilee in May. I wrote to her to say thank you for being Queen and serving her country for such a long time and I didn’t expect to receive a reply, so I was really happy when the letter came through.
“My family say that it’s a really important piece of history now and so I’m going to get it framed.”
Bilal Nadeem with his letter from The Queen.
The letter, which is dated August 19th and also included a photograph of the Queen in a commemorative Platinum Jubilee mount, reads: “The Queen has asked me to write and thank you for your letter. Her Majesty was pleased to hear from you and I hope you will understand that, because of the overwhelming amount of correspondence received in the last few months, it has not been possible to write to you until now.
“The Queen greatly appreciates your kind thoughts for her in this, Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee year, and I am to thank you very much again for your messages of support at this time.”
The Queen was not the only famous person to reply to children at the school, Harry Potter creator JK Rowling sent a personalised letter to 13-year-old Hannah Dewis.
While David Walliams put pen to paper to write to 15-year-old Demi Pendlebury, who had asked him if he was going to write another book.
Demi said: “He told me to be patient because he has some more books coming out soon. And he also gave me some advice about writing books.
“I was very surprised to get a reply because he’s such a popular author and he also does lots of TV work too. He personally signed the letter, so I have pinned it on my noticeboard at home.”
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