A three-year-old who idolises his local lollipop man has become Britain’s youngest crossing supervisor – with his own uniform and stick.
Charlie Rogers accompanies his mum and siblings to school every day and became besotted with regular lollipop man Graham Brown.
So his family made him a fluorescent uniform and lollipop stick – and Charlie now proudly shadows Graham as he guides children across the road.
The tot refers to himself as a “little Graham” – and knows exactly what he wants to be when he grows up.
Proud mum Sarah, 31, said: “We do the school run every morning and every afternoon, Charlie gets so excited about it all, it’s the highlight of his day.
“His love affair has been going on for about three or four months now, he absolutely loves it.
“This is who he wants to be, he wants to be a little Graham.
“He has to pretend he’s Graham when we walk home from school, he insists on trying to go out into the road to stop cars.
“Luckily our road is really quiet so I can let him do it.”
Charlie accompanies Sarah and brothers Brandon, 11, Callum, seven, and sister Lucy, eight, on the school run to St John’s Mead Primary in Chipping Sodbury, near Bristol.
His love affair with the crossing patrol began in November last year after he struck up an unusual friendship with Graham.
He then decided on his future career and begged family and friends for a special uniform “just like Graham’s”.
So his dad Neil, 31, a factory worker, made him a miniature lollipop stick and a neighbour modified an old fluorescent jacket to fit him.
Sarah, a stay-at-home mum, said: “He decided after seeing Graham that he really needed a lollipop, he said to me immediately, ‘I want one just like Graham’.
“He kept saying ‘not a sucking lollipop, I want a real one. Like Graham has’.
“Finally after a couple of weeks his dad relented and built him one. He got so excited about it and was showing it off to everyone.
“Then a neighbour made him a jacket from her husband’s work clothes and his little outfit was complete.
“The next time we went to school he wore it and that was it, he told Graham, ‘I’m like you! I’m a little Graham!’
“Graham absolutely loves it, he thinks it’s brilliant he has a mini me.”
Now the diligent tot waits alongside his hero every day and waves his family safely across the road.
Sarah added: “I’m dreading half term, he won’t know what to do with himself.
“There was one week poor Graham was off poorly and Charlie was devastated he had nobody to help him cross the road.
“He wanted to do it himself to show off what he had learnt.
“Even when we go past the school on a weekend he asks where Graham is, he’s devastated when I tell him he won’t be there.”
Charlie even made sure his nursery school held a special road safety day so he could show off his skills – and his uniform.
He said: “I really like the lollipop man. I want to be a lollipop man.
“I love my uniform I feel really important in it, mummy is lovely for letting me wear it.”
