Thursday, May 23, 2013

Helen Mirren steps in as understudy for the Queen to fulfill 10 year old Oliver Burton's wish of meeting Queen Elizabeth II and having tea at Buckingham Palace



Oliver Burton, ten, may have just weeks to live after being hit by cancer for a third time.
Visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace topped his list of dream activities — but his family was told a meeting would not be possible.
So Dame Helen stepped in, bringing him in a limo to see her West End show The Audience — in which she plays the Queen — then taking him backstage to meet her corgis.
The actress, 67, even KNIGHTED the excited schoolboy “Sir Oliver” during his visit, telling The Sun: “It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet such a brave young man.”
His mum Catherine, 29, and dad James, 32, said Oliver, who also has Down’s syndrome, truly thought the actress was the real royal deal.
Ex-Coldstream Guard James, now a full-time carer for his son, said of the visit: “She stayed in character for the whole thing and had a butler.
"She was really lovely.”
Oliver, from Leicester, was first diagnosed with leukaemia in 2006, aged three.
He recovered but in 2010 the cancer returned — and once again he pulled through.
Then last Christmas he was diagnosed with cancer in his spine and bone marrow — and this time intensive treatment is not possible, so he returned home with his mum, dad, and brother Ethan, six.
The family have raised £10,000 for special trips for Oliver through the National Children’s Tumour Leukaemia Cancer Trust, which arranged the visit with Dame Helen.



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