If you look on Ed Sheeran’s Instagram you will see a recent photo of him and a beautiful eleven-year-old fan. But this is not just any fan– the picture holds the caption, “Rest in peace, beautiful.” The super fan is Melody Driscoll, a young girl who fought a long and hard battle, living with the rare disease Rett syndrome.
What is Rett syndrome?
Rett syndrome is a rare disorder caused by a genetic mutation, which primarily occurs in females. Babies seem healthy at first, and then at around 6-18 months old, start to slowly lose bodily coordination. To learn more about Rett syndrome, click here.
Melody’s story
Melody lost her fight recently. Towards the end of her life, Melody’s parents, Karina and Nigel, were fighting a legal battle with the hospital responsible for treating their daughter. The doctors were concerned that administering Melody with steroids and morphine would potentially cause damage to her liver and they wanted to wean her off the medicine. However, Melody’s parents wanted the medicine to help ease their daughter’s pain. The legal claim was finally put to rest in January of 2018 and her parents were given an apology.
During the legal battle, the family faced high costs due to the legal proceedings. They created a crowdfunding page for their cause with a goal of 50,000 pounds.
Additionally, they reached out to Melody’s biggest star Ed Sheeran who met with Melody, and even donated a guitar of his to help the case. Karina, Melody’s mother said that Melody wanted to meet with Ed because she was such a huge fan– it was not a transactional relationship.
Karina says on Tuesday night a white feather fell into her lap and saw it as an angel looking out for her daughter. Sadly that very night, her daughter passed away in her parents’ arms. After Melody’s death, her mother said everyone loved her daughter’s smile and she cannot bear the “thought of not seeing her smile again.”
To learn more about this story, read the original article here.
