Ed Sheeran pays tribute to his 11-year-old superfan Melody Driscoll after she died fighting her battle with illness
Ed Sheeran paid a beautiful tribute to his 11-year-old superfan Melody Driscoll after the Croydon schoolgirl passed away in her parents' arms on Tuesday. The singer-songwriter posted a picture of him and Melody on his Instagram handle, captioned: "Rest in peace, beautiful." Her parents were devastated with the death as they won't be able to "see that smile again." Melody fought the rare gene mutation disease Rett Syndrome in which infants seem healthy for the first six months but gradually begin to lose coordination in their body movement, including losing control over speech.
Melody's parents, Karina Driscoll and Nigel, have been fighting a long legal battle against King's College Hospital after the doctors administering their daughter took her off from morphine and steroids that were helping ease her pain. Her doctors, on the other hand, feared that an overdose of the two could've caused some severe damage to the liver, so they decided to wean her off the medication.
The medics put up a claim against Karina, leading to legal proceedings suggesting that Melody is taken under foster care. The legal action was called off on January 18, and a meeting was held to apologize to the family.
The family's battle to raise sufficient funds for their legal case to remove Melody from King's College Hospital were boosted by Ed Sheeran's presence. Croydon Adviser reported that the singer even donated one of his guitars to honor Karina's request. Speaking of his gesture, Karina had said, "Legal costs are up to 12,000 pounds. We contacted Ed’s manager and asked if he could just maybe sign something for us. Melody’s relationship with Ed isn’t about asking for stuff, it’s about enjoying each other’s company, and we didn’t really want to ask."
Reportedly, Karina had also launched a Just Giving page in order to try and fund the legal battle targetting up to 50,000 pounds.
Devasted by her daughter's death, Karina said, "My heart is just broken that she has been taken away from me, I would give anything to get her back. Everyone that saw her smile fell in love with her. To know that we are never going to see that smile again has just broken us." Melody passed away on Wednesday, after fighting an extremely brave battle. Karina said, "I was sat outside [on Tuesday], and a white feather flew down, I thought it was an angel coming to look after her, not take her away. But she was gone that night. She started going cold. I thought if I just put my body on her and warmed her up she will come back to us, but it didn’t work. I can’t bear the thought of not seeing her smile again."
MirrorUK quotes Melody's father, Nigel, saying, "Melody's heart was the strongest, we said that if her heart stops then that’s her way of telling us she had had enough. She opened her eyes and looked at us. She was trying to talk to us, her mouth was moving. She was trying to say goodbye. She has changed my life forever. I wish I was half as strong as Melody."
