Photo: BBC; DIEGO AZUBEL/REX
Harry Shaw— the 5-year-old boy who inspiredLewis Hamiltonbefore the Formula One racer won the Spanish Grand Prix in May — has died after a battle with cancer.
“It is with the greatest of sadness and most broken of hearts we have to inform you Harry slipped away on Saturday evening,” his familywrote Monday on Twitteralongside a pair of photos of the little boy. “He fought to the very end and we were both with him for his final moments. His pain and suffering is over.”
“It is impossible to imagine life without Harry and the hole he will leave in our lives. We are SO proud of Harry and everything he achieved in his life and the legacy he has created to help others. 🏆,” asecond tweet read.
Shaw — who battled Ewing’s sarcoma, an extremely rare bone cancer — made headlines last month after sending Hamilton, 34, a good-luck message ahead of his race.
That message resonated with the Formula One driver, who at first had his team send Harry some signed photos and a Mercedes hat. “It just went from there, really,” Harry’s mom Charlottetold 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 added of Hamilton’s gifts for Harry. “It’s so special to see Harry enjoying himself.”
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Harry was thensurprised with a real Formula One Mercedes race carupon 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.
The five-time Formula One World Champion, who races for Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, described Harry as his “spirit angel,” dedicating his victory to the little boy while arranging for Mercedes to fly out one of its race cars to Harry’s home in Redhill, Surrey, England.
Hamilton alsoposted a heartfelt messageto Harry after seeing the boy’s good luck note on Instagram, writing, “Harry, you don’t know how much this message means to me buddy. Thank you so much, you are my inspiration today Harry. I will try to make you proud.”
Lewis Hamilton.Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty
Harry’s family started theHarry’s Giant Pledge fundraiser page— which has raised 94 percent of its £250,000 goal as of Tuesday morning — in an effort to leverage Harry’s story “to inspire fundraising for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity because only research can stop this awful disease.”
“On 1 June 2019, five-year-old Harry Shaw took his last breath after a tough 10 month battle against Ewing’s Sarcoma; a rare bone cancer,” the page’s description begins, sharing that Harry was first diagnosed after a routine scan this past August found “a tumor the size of a large baked potato” in the little boy’s chest.
“We can’t let Harry die without doing something to try and ensure other little Harry’s don’t go through the same thing. One of Harry’s favorite expressions during chemotherapy was: ‘Let’s just get it done,’ ” the note concluded. “In honor of Harry ‘let’s just get it done’ spirit let’sraise some money to beat this awful diseaseand give future children and their families hope.”
source: people.com
