Archie Batterbee's mother has shared a new picture of her son and told how proud she is of him after the boy's tragic death.
Hollie Dance has said how her son, 12, "fought until the very end" of his tragic death today. The schoolboy had been in a coma since he was found by his mum in April.
He was being kept alive by a combination of medical interventions - including ventilation and drug treatments. Archie sadly passed away this morning, the Mirror reports.
Standing outside the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, Hollie paid tribute to her son after his life support was switched off following a lengthy battle.
She said: "In sadness, Archie passed at 12.15pm today. I would just like to say I am the proudest mum in the world. He was such a beautiful little boy. He fought right until the very end and I am so proud to be his mum."
Speaking outside the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, Ms Dance said her "beautiful little boy" died at 12.15pm on Saturday. Archie's parents had fought a long-running legal battle over the withdrawal of treatment and in recent days made bids to the High Court, Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights to have him transferred to a hospice to die.
Announcing her son's death to the media, Ms Dance, of Southend, Essex, said "he fought right until the very end". In an interview with Sky News, recorded on Friday, Ms Dance said she was "pretty broken" and that the day had been "absolutely awful".
Breaking down, she said: "The last however many weeks since 7th April, I don't think there's been a day that hasn't been awful really."
Ms Dance added: "It's been really hard. Despite the hard strong face and appearance obviously in front of the cameras up until now, I've been pretty broken."
She said the hospital had made it clear there were no more options and that life support would be withdrawn at 10am on Saturday. Asked if there was anything more she could do, Ms Dance said: "No. I've done everything that I promised my little boy I'd do. And I've done it."
Doctors treating the schoolboy for the last four months declared Archie to be "brain-stem dead", prompting a lengthy but ultimately failed legal battle by his family to continue his life support treatment in the hope he would recover.
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