Villagers protest to save statue of ‘Britain’s friendliest man’ from being melted down | UK News

A statue of the ‘friendliest person in the UK’ has been saved from destruction after residents took last-minute action to prevent it being melted down and recycled.

Last year, Sebbie Hall was honoured with a life-size statue of himself, dressed in a cape and in a heroic pose, after he performed an act of kindness every day during the Covid pandemic – and has continued to do so for the past four years.

The 21-year-old, who believes his kindness is his ‘superpower’, has a rare chromosomal disorder and struggles with physical and communication difficulties. His mother, Ashley, runs the Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation, which has raised more than £100,000 for disadvantaged people in Staffordshire.

The statue was unveiled on Tower Hill in London last November and then temporarily moved to The Hub, an arts centre in Lichfield, Sebbie’s hometown.

However, the new location no longer offered sufficient space for the statue and there was a risk that it would be melted down and ‘recycled’.

This prompted entrepreneur Oliver Chapman, founder of supply chain procurement company OCI Group and friend of the charity Sebbie, to immediately launch a nationwide campaign to find a new, permanent home for the statue.

Mr Chapman arranged for the statue to be temporarily moved from The Hub to a storage location this week. However, two men from a courier company were unable to move the 6-foot-tall, 260-pound statue themselves and had no choice but to leave the location.

Until the people of Lichfield got wind of what was happening. Dozens of people from the local market came to help lift the statue into the van and take it away.

Ashley said: ‘The couriers just couldn’t get the statue out and it looked like they were going to have to do without it, leaving it with an uncertain fate, especially as it has to be inside. But suddenly I saw people from the market gathering around and offering to help move the statue, which was incredible.

‘Sebbie’s statue was finally able to leave the building! It was an incredible act of kindness from the people of Lichfield, which is what the Sebbie Hall Kindness Foundation is all about. Sebbie was overjoyed and I am so grateful to the people of Lichfield and Oliver Chapman for moving it at the last minute.’

Several organisations, including a provider of train station and office space solutions, offered to house the Sebbie statue, but neither organisation was able to house the statue indoors.

Mr Chapman said: ‘It was heartening to hear how the people of Lichfield came together to save the Sebbie Statue, which means so much to Sebbie and his family. The statue acts as a beacon of hope for all disabled young people worldwide and must be preserved.

“We have had sincere requests from organizations that want to help, but for now the search for a new permanent home for the statue continues. We sincerely hope that this will be possible.”

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