Alfie Evans' family begs supporters to stop posting his pictures as it upsets his mother
The family of Alfie Evans have asked supporters to stop posting pictures on social media of the child with halos and angel wings because it is allegedly making his mom Kate Evans upset.
Well-wishers have added the sweet elements to the pictures before they share the edited images on social media in touching tributes to the 23-month-old child who passed away early morning on April 28. The toddler's aunt, Sarah Evans, has made an appeal directly to the 800,000 members of the Alfie's Army, begging them not to edit any of the pictures.
In the post she made to the group on Facebook: "Just a couple of things I have been asked to mentioned on behalf of Tom and Kate. One is that there are nasty rumors going about that are not true and we ask that you don’t listen to them."
"The second one is the pictures people are doing of Alfie with wings and halos saying R.I.P Alfie, it’s really upsetting Kate so if you want to have a picture of Alfie on your profiles that is fine but none of the above on them please. Thank you all for the flowers, cards and love shown for Alfie our warrior is missed beyond belief."
The doctors who had won the court battle to pull Alfie's plug in the hospital had made a statement before saying that he had no chance of recovering from the rare degenerative brain condition that he was suffering from. This decision was also against the wishes of Pope Francis and of Alfie's parents.
Tom and Kate Evans are planning to hold the toddler's funeral on what would have been his birthday on May 9.
Writing on the Alfie's Army support group on the social media site, Tom Evans wrote: "My gladiator lay down his shield and gained his wings at 02:30... absolutely heartbroken... I LOVE YOU MY GUY".
The announcement came just as Italian prosecutors were thinking of opening a case against the Alder Hey Hospital. The tiny tot was granted Italian citizenship just a few days before his untimely demise.
Tom and Kate had wanted to shift Alfie to a hospital in Rome for treatment and they even had the support of Pope Francis and many senior Italian politicians. Opening up a criminal investigation will end up causing a diplomatic nightmare for the two countries.
Detectives could question the doctors and the judicial officials involved if an investigation is opened but any requests for the same would have to go through the Crown Prosecution Service.
A source in the prosecutor's office in Rome which takes care of probes abroad has said: "Alfie Evans was an Italian citizen and he died in a foreign country. The case will be discussed at the highest level and a decision will be made in the next few weeks."