A GOUROCK mum and her son have played a starring role in an online video to raise awareness about Down’s Syndrome which has been viewed more than THREE MILLION times.

Cheryl McCauley, 31, and her four-year-old son Charlie joined forces with 49 other families from all over the UK to show that children born with Down’s Syndrome can lead an ordinary and happy life.

They are part of a Facebook group called Designer Genes, created for parents who have a child with Down’s Syndrome born in 2013 or 2014.

One of the mums in the group saw a Singing Hands carpool karaoke video signed with Makaton, a simplified form of British sign language, and thought it would be a nice idea to replicate it.

So 50 parents from across the UK and their children filmed themselves in their cars singing A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, which was then edited into one clip by one of the dads who was also part of the Facebook group.

The video was released online on Friday and after less than 24 hours had already amassed more than 507,000 views and numerous messages of support.

Celebrities who have tweeted about it include carpool karaoke host James Corden and This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield.

However, despite the success, Cheryl admitted that it wasn’t all plain sailing to put it together.

She said: “We loved making it. Charlie and I had so much fun.

“But we had to have two attempts at filming because we were both tired and grumpy on day one and fell out! We managed the second time when I let him sit in the driver’s seat.

“It’s just mums and their kids having fun — it’s not focused on Down’s Syndrome and you can see from the video everyone is happy and the children are loving it too.

“We are hoping it will show people that they are just normal four-year-olds, cheeky and full of mischief.

“People often feel sorry for you when you have a child born with Down’s Syndrome but we don’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’re happy.”

The video has been shared on Facebook more than 54,000 times already and the group are hoping that the video will raise awareness ahead of World Down’s Syndrome Day tomorrow.

Cheryl added: “It’s crazy how well it has done. It was just something we did for ourselves and our family and friends but it has really taken off.

“It’s gone better than we ever imagined and we are all delighted with how it has turned out.

“It feels really good to be part of something that could have a really positive impact.

“We’ve had the backing of the king of carpool karaoke James Corden and even Phillip Schofield replied to my tweet saying the video was amazing.

“We thought it might get a bit of coverage because of the initial interest but we never imagined this!

“If it can help one person to see another side to Down’s Syndrome then it will be worth it.”

The video even has the support of singer Christina Perri and her husband Paul Costabile, who is a lifelong advocate of children with special needs.

The group contacted Christina via her husband on Twitter to ensure there were no copyright issues and within an hour the couple declared their heartfelt support for the idea.

The video, called 50 mums, 50 kids, one extra chromosome, aims to popularise the hashtag #wouldn’tchangeathing.

To view the video visit https://youtu.be/Biex1XR_mpo