Formula One star Lewis Hamilton sends race car and trophy to terminally ill young fan
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton's team sent his Mercedes race car to the home of a terminally ill fan in England. Hamilton, who won the Spanish Grand Prix over the weekend, said he dedicated the victory to 5-year-old Harry Shaw after being so inspired by him.
Shaw, who has Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, loves race cars and Hamilton. Ahead of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport driver's big race on Sunday, the child sent him a video thanking him for gifts and wishing him good luck. Hamilton reposted the video on his personal Instagram page and wrote a heartfelt caption.
"Harry, you don't know how much this message means to me buddy," he wrote. "Thank you so much, you are my inspiration today Harry. I will try to make you proud. You are such a strong boy, I wish I was as strong as you, I wanted the world to see how strong you are and ask everyone to send their best wishes and prayers to you during this hard time."
Hamilton would go on to win first place in Barcelona — and pointed to Shaw as his motivation.
"Today, I was just super-inspired by this kid that sent me a message," Hamilton said. "He was my spirit angel."
Mercedes would go on to send one of Hamilton's cars and his Spanish Grand Prix trophy to Shaw's home in Redhill on Monday, CBS News partner BBC reported. The boy was seen holding the trophy and being carried next to the vehicle in photos posted by Shaw's father, James Shaw's Twitter account.
James and his mother, Charlotte Shaw, were grateful for Hamilton's act of kindness.
"I don't know Lewis, but I think what we've seen is what a genuine, decent, lovely person he is. That was a heartfelt message he did and he won that Grand Prix for Harry and that means a lot." James told the BBC.
"It's brought smiles into his life at a time when there's a limited amount of fun to be had, to be perfectly honest," Charlotte said.
Shaw's family is also raising money for research into Harry's disease and have so far collected more than $97,000.
