This Morning presenter Ben Shephard is backing The Mirror’s campaign to help eight-year-old Pride of Britain star Florrie Bark raise £1 million for her children’s cancer charity.
Speaking about Florrie’s charity Bemorefab - to give kids with cancer access to education - he tells The Mirror: “It would be incredible to raise £1 million for Christmas.”
Winner of a Child of Courage award at the Daily Mirror’s 25th Pride of Britain Awards, in association with TSB, for her charity work and hilarious TikToks to raise awareness of child cancer, the little girl with the infectious giggle won the nation’s heart.
With donations from Mirror readers and pledges now taking her fund to more than £112,700, Ben, 49, a dad-of-two, pays tribute to Florrie and asks people to dig deep and donate, saying: “I think Florrie is the most magical, special, wonderful, mischievous, giggly, sparkly shiny human being. She has a fabulously infectious laugh, generosity of spirit and boundless warmth and gorgeousness, she is sunshine personified.
“Cat Deeley and I saw her and her mum and dad and her brother on the night (of Pride of Britain) and the wide-eyed excitement and joy in her face at being there and all the attention she was getting she absolutely loved and rightly so. It would just be incredible to raise a million pounds for Christmas. Obviously, the money will be used for really important support, research and help for other children and families who are going through this sort of difficult recovery and treatment.
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Dave Benett/Getty Images for Hearst)“Christmas is a time when we tend to think a lot more about what’s going on at home and, of course, there are lots of families and children who won’t be home for Christmas, can’t be home for Christmas, can’t be together for Christmas - because they are having very difficult or painful, drawn out treatments for certain illnesses. So donating a little bit of money at this time of year will be the best Christmas present that we could ever give.
“Feeling in the room (at Pride of Britain) was that here was an extraordinary generosity towards her (Florrie) who has been so selfless in sharing her journey and trying to help other people - other children specifically who are going though hospital treatment, cancer treatment - to understand that hospitals don’t need to be horrible, scary places. They can be places of fun and learning and joy, that goes alongside the important care that happens there.
“You can tell by the difference that Florrie has already made to young people’s lives in such a short space of time by the number of followers that she has on social media, on TikTok.
“She’s had so many messages from children and families who have seen her TikTok videos and it’s given them a sense of hope, which is just so important when you are going into that sort of treatment and you’re being looked after by doctors and nurses, who are doing their best. But, without hope it makes it really difficult to continue with that treatment, because it is relentless.
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Tim Merry / Daily Mirror)“I’ve worked with a number of charities and a couple of people who’ve been through things like this, and have personal experience of family members going through it and hope is such an important part of the healing process. And that’s what Florrie’s giving people by sharing these TikToks, and her joy and personality. She’s helping them understand that this is a long and difficult process, but it can be fun and there can be moments to smile in every day.
“One of my best friend’s sons had open heart surgery as a baby and continued to have open heart surgery as he’s got older through the children’s heart unit in Newcastle. So I’ve seen long term medication and care going to children who are having transplants - lung transplants or heart transplants - and understand the importance of an environment that is conducive to children being able to be children and not just having to go through the treatment for the conditions that they have.
“I worked a lot with and got to know an incredible young man called Harry Moseley, who set up his own foundation Help Harry Help Others. He had a brain tumour and he wanted to try and help people who were dealing with brain tumours and brain cancer, so that none of them had to go through what he had to.
“We sadly lost Harry (he died aged 11 in 2011) and he had a huge amount of treatment in hospital, when really he wanted to be in school. He wanted to be surrounded by his friends. Understanding the importance of him being able to be himself and just be a young boy, even though he faced the most daunting prospects, has always made causes like this and brilliant incentives and brilliant campaigns like Florrie’s resonate with me all the more tangibly. I love the fact that Florrie went to No 10 Downing Street and was giving Keir Starmer a hard time.
“I’m so excited that she got her moment to shine in front of everybody at the Pride of Britain alongside the Mirror and we had her on This Morning. There are very few people in the world like Florrie and we are very, very lucky to have them and we need to cherish them and shine a light on them as often as we can, because their star will help heal lots of people.”
To donate to Florrie’s Bemorefab charity via GoFundMe go to gofundme.com/f/surprise-fundraiser-for-superstar-florrie
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