Photo: BBC; DIEGO AZUBEL/REX
Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton made one fan’s day after sending an F1 race car over to terminally ill 5-year-old Harry Shaw.
The boy from Surrey had sent Hamilton a good luck message on Instagram from his hospital bed before Hamilton won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday in Barcelona,the BBC reported on Sunday.
That good luck message resonated with the Formula One driver, who at first had his team send Harry some signed photographs and a Mercedes hat.
“It just went from there, really,” Charlotte Shaw, Harry’s mother, told the BBC. “It’s brought smiles into his life at a time when there’s a limited amount of fun to be had, to be perfectly honest.”
“It’s just got bigger and bigger and better and better and the smiles have got broader and broader,” she said of Hamilton’s gifts for Harry. “It’s so special to see Harry enjoying himself.”
Harry, who has Ewing’s sarcoma, was surprised with an actual Formula One Mercedes race car upon returning to his home for his final days. Charlotte and her husband James were told Harry had just one week left to live back in April, according to the BBC.
“I don’t know Lewis, but I think what we’ve seen is what a genuine, decent, lovely person he is,” James said of Hamilton. “That was a heartfelt message he did and he won that Grand Prix for Harry and that means a lot.”
The Formula One driver described the boy as his “spirit angel,” dedicating Sunday’s victory to him while arranging for Mercedes to fly out one of its race cars to Harry’s home in Redhill, Surrey. Hamilton is expected to present his grand prix trophy to his biggest fan, as well.
Hamilton also posted a heartfelt message to Harry after seeing the boy’s good luck message on Instagram.
The Shaw family has raised over £15,000 ($19,235) for research into the disease after setting up a charity page online. Mercedes later tweeted that they were supporting the fundraiser as well.
Hamilton is a five-time Formula One World Champion who races for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport.
source: people.com
