Applause as girl thanks Harry for giving mother a sporting chance
Six-year-old reads letter of tribute to Prince after RAF sergeant named among 90 athletes for Invictus Games
A SIX-YEAR-OLD girl warmed the hearts of some of Britain’s toughest servicemen yesterday, as she thanked Prince Harry for “helping her mummy” after she was selected for the Invictus Games 2017 team.
Maya Turner won a loud round of applause after reading a handwritten letter about her mother, RAF sergeant Michelle Turner, at an official unveiling of the UK team at the Tower of London.
Sgt Turner, 38, from Wigan, is among the 90 athletes selected to compete in this year’s Invictus Games, despite a serious heart condition which causes exhaustion, dizziness and collapse.
Before attending training camps, she said, she was a “broken girl”, too afraid to go out.
Thanks to the Games coaches, she is “on a journey that is making me do things I never thought I’d do again”, proclaiming herself “so damn proud and happy”.
Her daughter Maya yesterday read a letter dedicated to Prince Harry to competitors, declaring: “I was very proud of mummy and every other brave boy and girl. “Thank you Help For Heroes and Prince Harry for helping my mummy and her friends.”
The six-year-old was praised after making a 999 call when her mother collapsed at home in 2015 and she later received an award in recognition of her efforts.
Before thanking Maya personally, Prince Harry told assembled Invictus competitors: “No matter how you are going to do, I promise you that you will feel a million dollars. Whether you cross the finishing line first or last will make no difference to me or to anyone. “It’s in our blood to win, it’s in our nature to win. [But] whether you are blowing smoke out of your a--e as you cross the line makes no difference.
“It is what you are achieving, what you have achieved to get there.” The UK team will be captained by former Army major Bernie Broad, who lost both his legs below the knee due to injuries sustained in an explosion in Afghanistan in 2009, undergoing four years of extensive surgery and rehabilitation.
He said: “When you become injured, it’s amazing what you lose – confidence, dignity, stature… I didn’t want anyone to see me like this. In- victus was a big, bright light that I feel I needed to get into. Now I’ve got no excuse not to do nothing.”
Told by another competitor that Invictus gave them the chance to be part of the military family again, Prince Harry said: “This is my fix, too, you know.
“I’ve left the forces as well now and I miss everything about it. Well, not quite everything about it, but it’s an opportunity to be with like-minded people, to share that dark sense of humour that we all love, and just be amongst each other.”
Prince Harry followed a morning of Invictus launch activities by hosting his first solo garden party at Buckingham Palace, in honour of 2,500 former and serving members of the military belonging to the Not Forgotten Association.
They included Dr William Frankland, 105, one of the world’s leading allergists and former prisoner of war in Singapore who had treated Saddam Hussein as a young man.
Dr Frankland said he had been told Hussein suffered from hay fever, only to discover his problems were down to 40 cigarettes a day and warning him sternly to give up. “So yes, I suppose if I hadn’t told him that then things might be very different today,” he joked.
Prince Harry also met Martin Wilson, 44, formerly of 2 Para, who recently completed the gruelling Marathon Des Sables six years after being shot in the head in Afghanistan.
Colour Sgt Wilson, a sniper commander, said afterwards: “Harry told me how much he would love to do the race too if his security were to allow it.”
The Invictus Games will take place from September 23 to 30 in Toronto, Canada.
‘No matter how you are going to do, I promise you that you will feel a million dollars’