For an aspiring actor like Millie Anna Prelogar, it must have been a dream come true. Not only did she get to dine out at her favourite restaurant, she did so with Sir Ian McKellen.
Millie, 17, a model and Down’s syndrome activist, was so excited after seeing Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard at the Theatre Royal in Windsor that she posted a picture on Instagram of herself in front of posters of McKellen and Martin Shaw, who acted in the play. It caught the eye of McKellen, who asked Millie and her father, Jeff, to show him the sights of the town.
McKellen, whose cousin also had Down’s syndrome, ended up spending four and a half hours with them, eating fudge, drinking coffee and dining at Millie’s favourite pizzeria, Enzo’s. He even visited her family home to meet Millie’s mother and her cockapoo, Lola, before leaving for the theatre.
Photos on Instagram showed McKellen and Millie hanging out at the stage door, embracing outside the gates of Windsor Castle, hiding behind a bunch of pink flowers and ordering hot chocolate. Millie said: “He was so inspirational! That was something I can always live up to, and always remember as mine — that I did a tour with Ian. I think it was so perfect!”
She said that she and McKellen bonded over a shared playfulness. “I think it was amazing how I got on with Ian. Sometimes we all need to give back.”
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Millie’s father said that at times he felt as if he were looking after two children: “They just had fun, it was a couple of kids larking around town.”
Millie hopes that people looking at her social media page will get a new perspective on living with Down’s syndrome. “If people have children with Down’s syndrome, I want them to think, yes, I saw somebody on Instagram, and she has Down’s syndrome, and she is proud to have it. And so they think, ‘One day I want my kids to grow up and do exactly the same things as Millie Anna did.’ ”
Her number of Instagram followers has risen twelvefold since McKellen shared the pictures online. “I’m so proud of who I have become,” she said.
Her father, a former investment banker and entrepreneur, said that there was a “terrible disconnect” between the law and what is done for people with special needs in reality. “We [have] certainly found along the way that the vast majority of people, including, unfortunately, the schools, have a very, very low expectation of particularly people with Down syndrome, but also other people with special needs.”