Image: Supplied
For six-year-old Capetonian Alex Taljard, there couldn’t have been a more exciting visitor at her London hospital bedside.
Toy Story 3 is Alex’s favourite movie and the visitor was Tom Hanks, the Hollywood star who provides the voice of Woody.
“He did a few lines from the movie for her in Woody’s voice, which she enjoyed very much,” said Alex’s mother, Lisa MacLeod.
The little girl, who has a rare kidney disease, is part of a medical trial in London and her family lives there for prolonged periods so she can receive treatment three times a week at Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
“On Monday, we were told by the matron that a special visitor was coming to meet some children, and Alex was invited to a sneak preview of Toy Story 4, which opens in cinemas this Friday,” said MacLeod.
“Hanks spoke with me about Alex’s condition and her treatment, and revealed that his own father was on dialysis for many years after losing both his kidneys (as did Alex) to kidney disease, so he had a deep and personal understanding of the extreme difficulties kidney patients face.”
Alex was diagnosed with focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) when she was 18 months old, and lost her kidneys. She underwent surgery in Cape Town last year when her grandmother, MacLeod’s mother Jenni, donated a kidney to her.
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BY: DAN MEYER
SOURCE: TMG DIGITAL
