Ezra’s robot double keeps him connected
Thursday, December 18th, 2025
Image above: Left: Ezra with Ez-bot in hospital. We love the glasses he added to the robot! Right: Ezra’s back in the game during his first competitive football match after treatment.
Ezra was diagnosed with leukaemia at around this time last year and was facing the prospect of missing an extensive period of school due to the courses of chemotherapy and stem cell treatment to follow.
James Whiting, the CEO of Northampton Town Football Club, had heard about how we helped a young girl in a similar situation to keep in touch with her friends and education through one of our friendly little AV1 BubbleBuster Project robots. It sat at her desk at school when she couldn’t be there, and became her eyes, ears and voice in the classroom. By controlling it remotely through a tablet computer, she could talk, learn and interact alongside her friends.
James shared the story with Ezra’s parents, and within days of hearing from them we were able to provide an AV1 robot for Ezra in time for the start of the new school term.
Ezra named his robot ‘Ez-bot’, and he was able to control it from hospital and home through an iPad. Ezra’s classmates and friends took to Ez-bot immediately and carried it with them wherever possible, and with amazing support from the school Ezra was able to feel included and keep up to speed with his learning.
“I can honestly say without Ez-bot this journey would have been 100 times harder,” said his father Kie. “It gave Ezra the routine and social contact that was lacking and helped break up the long days in hospital – we can genuinely never thank the charity enough!”
A few weeks ago it was a joy to hear that sports-mad Ezra was finally (and happily!) back at school, and he’s now played his first competitive football match since his treatment.
Since the BubbleBusters Project started in 2020 we’ve connected over 100 families with schools across the UK, and we look forward to our little loan robots, made by No Isolation, being reused again and again to tackle isolation and help many more pupils in the future.
Find out more about our BubbleBusters Project here, and become a regular giver to help us support more children with technology.