Little did he expect that Mr Blair, touched by the gesture and Glen’s triumph over illness, would reply with a card and personal note — never mind remember him almost two years later.

Mr Blair remarked, “It was really good of you to drop me a line for my birthday,” when the pair, born on May 6, were brought together by the Evening Telegraph at the St Andrews Bay Hotel last night.

The occasion was a meeting between Mr Blair and Tele readers for a question-and-answer session.

Glen then presented the Prime Minister with mementoes of both Dundee (a book of McGonagall poetry) and his home village (a jar of Newbigging honey).

The youngster said afterwards, “I was told not to tell any of my pals at school about it, and I don’t know what they will say now that I can.

“I never even really thought when I wrote to him that I would get a reply, never mind meet him in person. He seemed to remember who I was, even though it was nearly two years ago.

“To be honest, I thought it would be quite boring, but it wasn’t. It is something that I will remember for a long time.”

Glen was born with three holes in his heart, and his family was told that he required major surgery to correct the congenital defect.

On reaching the age of two, it was arranged for Glen to go to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh for the operation.

However, the operation was postponed because Glen picked up a virus. Then, when a new date was set, the same thing happened.

A third date was agreed but, when pre-theatre tests showed that Glen had again picked up a chest infection, his family feared he was destined never to receive the treatment he so badly needed.

It was felt that further delaying the surgery was too risky, and little Glen spent more than six hours in surgery while the holes were fixed and work done on the arteries around his heart.

After a tense few days, his condition began to improve and he is now a fit and healthy teenager, attending Harris Academy in Dundee.

His proud dad John said last night, “When Glen sent him the birthday card it was right at the beginning of the war in Iraq, and he must have had a lot of things on his mind.

“However, he took time out to write to a child, and I thought a lot of him for that. Having met him tonight, he seems a genuine person.”

While the Prime Minister and the teenager may share a birthday, that appears to be where the similarities end.

When told that Glen’s favourite subject at school was science, Mr Blair laughed, “I was always hopeless at science!”