POTENTIAL scientists of the future received a boost for their school in Watchet when two special grandparents presented them with a gift of six microscopes on Monday.

Martin and Sheila Stevens, grandparents of Elliot Stevens, the one-year-old whose death inspired the charity Elliot’s Touch, donated the microscopes at a special science assembly at Knights Templar First School.

Their grandson would have been in his first year at the school, and Martin and Sheila said they wanted to make the gift in his memory, and to inspire the children to maybe become scientists who could one day help find cures for the mitochondrial disease and associated dilated cardiomyopathy which Elliot suffered from.

Their gift means that instead of the school having three microscopes on loan for a term, it has six microscopes of its own for the whole school to use throughout the year.

The couple heard about the school’s many needs at the inaugural meeting of the Knights Templar School and Community Association earlier this year.

“We were shocked to hear how underfunded the school was and that children did not have the opportunity to use scientific instruments like microscopes,” Martin told the Free Press.

“The idea of Elliot’s Touch is to fund research into the mitochondrial disease he suffered from, and we made the link that we wanted to encourage children to get into science.”

The couple decided to buy five microscopes, but the company they approached - Scientific and Chemical Supplies in the West Midlands - was so touched by the story that it gave them an “incredible” discount and a sixth microscope for free.

Sharon Garcia-Vince, chairman of the school and community association, said the school was delighted with the new microscopes.