11 questions Laughlin chose his outfit, himself, for the Wellchild 2014 awards last Monday about 3 months ago. When he was, in fact, a well child. He said he was modelling himself on Pharell Williams in the Happy video, and was quite specific about the look he wanted to achieve, down to the black trilby. If only we had all been that organised on the night when our time came to meet royalty. Someone said, Hes coming over, get ready, so I was squatting down to get Guss clothes in some semblance of order (not really sure why) when someone came over and started saying hello to Laughlin and Andrea. Finished half-tucking the shirt tail into a squirming Gus and looked over my shoulder to find Prince H kneeling on the carpet next to me. He offered me a handshake, so the official royal greeting from the Whiteley/Poyser household was Hi, how you going? Glad tos ee he was about as bothered about getting his suit grubby as I was. He couldnt have been more interested - with the gift of listening, connecting, and adding something. He asked about our day, so we ranged from discussing room relocation at GOSH due to ant incursions - hi scomment being Thats worrying (despite the fact I did not mention they were attracted by spilt blood from a transfusion) - to the length of the queue for burgers at Covent Garden - but I dont get to go there very often. Gus had my camera and was in his element, taking snaps -although all of these were artistically squiffy, and somewhat fuzzy due to the red-eye reduction delay. Was Prince Harry taken aback? - No, he egged him on. All three of them were in their element. He will be a fantastic uncle. There were discussions about Lego, Harry gracefully threading his way through and around the very specific knowledge required abou tThe Tower of Orthanc and The Rancor Pit, before affirming that models had to be built and then displayed for ALL time. Then it was time for Laughlins questions - not one or two, but 11 that swept across his wide ranging interests. Harry agreed to answer them, before commenting that he didnt realise it was an full interview.! We left them to it, with Harry taking the list and working his way through them, Laughlin adding his comments and grinning cheekily. We never will know the answers - as at the end Harry pointed over to the reporters and said something like this to Laughlin - You see those people from the papers over there, they would probably love to know the answers, but dont tell them. They can stay secret, so only you know. And so the lid slammed shut on Laughlin and Harrys box of11 secrets, locked by the key of honour. We will therefore never know (unless a tabloid or celeb mag has already squirreled these out of him): What his favourite Lord of the Rings character is? Whether he likes making and painting model aeroplanes? Whether he has been to a beach hut? Whether he likes Lego? Whether he has a nickname for his brother? Why he became a helicopter pilot? What is the weirdest food that he has had to eat when he has been travelling? Whether he has had a canula in his hand? If he has a pet and if not what sort of pet he would like? Whether he has been on an archaeological dig? Whether he has any tattoos? Even I dont know all the answers. They are Laughlins scoops. And Prince Harry deserves every bit of this loyalty. He was friendly, easy-going, engaging, funny, open, fun-loving - and not just child-friendly, but clearly child-loving. He enjoyed himself, and that made the boys enjoy themselves. But that was by no means the best bit of the night. We then moved into the ballroom, which was now full and buzzing. Finding our table, we had a quick chat with James Phelps, one of the Weasley twins from Harry Potter,and then settled down for the awards. The first award was for the Most Inspirational 7-11 year old girl and boy. A video was shown of families, friends and professionals, talking about their courage, compassion and love of life - you can see a little of this, with us all at the Unlock a Life for Lockey beach hut. And then Laughlins name was announced as the winner, along with Rachel Hooley (heartsthatmatter.tumblr/ ). Andrea and I helped him up onto the stage, but then the thunderous applause swept him along with us looking on, under his own steam, independent, proud, and dapper, to receive his award. The coolest two presenters (Ashley and Perri from the street dance troupe Diversity diversityofficial/) gave him his weighty trophy, and he joined them for the photos. As he came back off the stage he was beaming, and buzzing. And rightly so. Half an hour later we were on our way back to hospital - no great emergencies, other than two exhausted little boys and the fact that I didnt recognise any of the celebrities. The matching parental exhaustion had nothing to do with this evening to be treasured. A medical week from hell was also being endured.... but dont let that cloud the magic of Laughlins night. We didnt.
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 20:58:19 +0000
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