Get your tissues at the ready as Paul O’Grady’s Little Heroes on ITV comes to the end of the series with more emotional stories of bravery and determination
Even by the standards of the profoundly moving Paul O’Grady’s Little Heroes on ITV, Paul’s final visit to Great Ormond Street (8.30pm, see our TV Guide for full listings) is an emotional watch.
We guarantee that, like Paul, you’ll be blown away by the courage of Connor, 13, who has leukaemia, five-year-old Taheem, who returns for a risky kidney transplant, and four-year-old Lucy (above), born with a heart defect, who has tests to see if she can one day ditch the backpack that delivers her intravenous medication.
Will Paul’s Donald Duck impression cheer her up?!
Connor has been fighting leukaemia since he was four years old.
For nine years, he’s been in and out of London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital to receive treatment and has had relapse after relapse.
Vulnerable to infection, he must spend weeks on the isolation ward, while undergoing chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells.
‘This is our fourth relapse,’ says Connor’s mum, Jules.
‘I call him my warrior.
‘He gets on with it, and his motto is that he’s never going to give up – he’s going to be here.’
MORE: Vote for Paul O’Grady’s Little Heroes in the TV Times Awards
After a donor match is finally found in America, the bone marrow is flown to London from New York and stem cells are harvested before Connor’s transplant.
The medical team hope that his body will accept the donor cells and produce new blood cells to help fight his leukaemia.
After a long 10 weeks on the ward, his recovery is going well and he’s allowed outside.
But has the leukaemia gone for good?
‘I was nervous as hell, but it’s a 100 per cent graft, so everything is going according to plan,’ says a relieved Jules.
‘We seem to be turning a corner!’
TV Times rating: *****
