Still here for you: Harry’s hug for terminally ill boy
PRINCE Harry echoed his late mother, Princess Diana, as he cradled a terminally ill boy on a surprise hospital visit.
The prince, 32, was reunited with Ollie Carroll, who he first met when he gave him an award for being an inspirational youngster at the WellChild Awards in London last year.
Ollie, six, suffers from a rare genetic condition called Battens Disease, for which there is no known cure, and will eventually leave him unable to walk, talk, see, eat or breathe.
He melted the prince’s heart when, despite his obvious difficulties, he managed to walk towards him and fling his arms around his neck.
Harry has privately kept in touch with the family – and on Tuesday he paid an unannounced hour- long visit to Great Ormond Street Hospital to see Ollie and his sister, Amelia, three, who also has the same disease.
A photograph of him cradling the little boy was posted by the family on Facebook and has since been shared thousands of times – not least because it bears such a resemblance to Diana’s renowned compassion for the sick.
Ollie and Amelia’s mother, Lucy Carroll, of Poynton, Cheshire, said: ‘For an hour Prince Harry sat with us talking and playing with our children, laughing and making memories.
‘The very thing our children want the most in life, to be happy and having fun. From the bottom of our hearts we thank Prince Harry for his support, his time and his kindness towards our family and our journey with Battens Disease.’
Harry is patron of the charity WellChild that honoured Ollie in October last year.
On that occasion, Mrs Carroll told the Daily Mail that her son, who was born healthy but developed the disease, that he had just reacted ‘naturally’ to the prince’s empathy. She told Harry: ‘You know, not everyone gets a hug. You are very lucky indeed.’
Battens occurs due to a genetic abnormality, which Mrs Carroll and her husband Mike both unknowingly carried the trigger for.
Just 30 children have the condition in the entire country.
‘We thank him from bottom of hearts’