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A little boy has revealed the heartbreaking story behind his Panda cuddly toy plea - to a moved Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield on This Morning.

Leon Ashworth, 10, stole the hearts of Liverpool, after writing an adorable message on a box in Asda - to reserve a panda cuddly toy that his mum couldn’t afford to buy him.

The message read: “My mum didn’t have enough money to buy me pandy so she’s buying me pandy on 15th June so please don’t buy him as it will make me sad and I will cry, thank you so much from hopeful future owner”.

Leon who said “Pandy’s eyes gleamed at him the minute he saw him” hid the box with Pandy in behind a shelf of giraffe teddies.

Mum-of-three Debbie, 38, said: “It did pull at my heartstrings.

“He gets a couple of pounds pocket money each week and I knew he really wanted the panda but it was one of those weeks that you had to get the essentials in and I couldn’t give him the money.

“I thought to myself I will give him the extra pocket money so he can buy it when we come back.”

Debbie, who works at the intensive care at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, added: “He was really upset and said ‘what if someone buys him mummy?’

“He went over to customer services and asked if he could reserve him but they said they couldn’t do that unfortunately.

“So he said ‘I am going to put a reserve on it mummy’.

“And that was it, he did and put it back.”

Asda worker David Bateman, who appeared by video link from the Hunts Cross Asda store this morning, found the heartbreaking note and when the 15th came and went he took to Facebook in a bid to find Pandy’s future owner.

After the post went viral Leon’s mum took him to the store to be reunited with his Pandy and said he was “amazed” at the gesture by staff.

Unbeknown to Leon, who had been saving up his pocket money for the bear, staff at the Hunts Cross store had pooled together to buy it for him.

And in a heartwarming twist to the tale, Leon, who said he has “probably about loads of teddies”, that “all share his bed with him” decided to do something very special with the pocket money he would have spent on Pandy.

Holly told viewers that Leon and the whole family had had a “difficult start to their year”.

Mum Debbie, who also has children Troy, 11 and Jennifer, seven, said: “We have had a tough start.

“We lost out little boy Oliver at 24 weeks pregnant in January.

“It hit home quite hard and the children have struggled.”

The family, through the difficult time, have been supported by charity The Honeysuckle Team - which provides care for women and their families at Liverpool Women’s Hospital following miscarriage, stillbirth and early neonatal death.

The charity gives bereaved families what they call an ‘aching arm bear’ to comfort families.

And this is where Leon wanted his pocket money to go - towards buying more bears for families.

Debbie added: “Leon wanted to donate the money to the charity that has helped us.

“When you lose a baby the Honeysuckle team say that you have aching arms, so every mum or family gets a bear from them and it’s not a replacement it’s just a gesture.

“So that is what Leon wanted his money to be spent on.”

And as if getting Pandy and helping charity wasn’t enough- hosts Holly and Phil had another surprise for selfless Leon.

Handing him a scroll, entwined with bamboo leaves, the family found out they would be going to Hong Kong to see real life pandas.

Phil said: “We are sending you on a trip, thank you to British Airways to Hong Kong for the whole family to meet some real life pandas.

“You will fly all the way to China, stay in a luxury hotel and then go to Hong Kong’s Ocean Park to see the Panda’s where you can feed them fruit kebabs, ride a panda themed roller coaster, learn behind the scenes secrets of pandas and watch them forage for bamboo.

Phil added to an overwhelmed Leon and his mum: “That was a good trip to the supermarket wasn’t it?”