Sophie Delezio

Sophie Delezio hit by a car (again??)

This little darling has to be one of the unluckiest children in Australia at only 5 years old. She suffered third degree burns to 80% of her body when she became trapped beneath a burning car after it crashed through a childcare centre just before Christmas 2004, and today she's been hit by a car that failed to stop at a pedestrian crossing. It makes you want to just throttle whoever it was behind the wheel by the neck!

I wouldn't be surprised if she developed amaxophobia or something totally wacked like that later on in life.

A couple of months before Sophie's burn tragedy, a friend of mine lost her family friends in a home gas explosion (article) leaving 8-year old Paul with burns to 80% of his body . I went to hospital with her on numerous occasions and it was just absolutely heart breaking to see somebody in such a state. He was surrounded by tubes, bandages, beeping machines and was completely helpless lying on his back for over a year, back and forth between the burns unit and intensive care between dozens of surgical operations at Westmead Children's Hospital. He had no idea until he made a little progress that his family had perished. Recently, I bumped into him and his grandmother and it was really hard to see the horrendous scars to his face which will undoubtedly haunt him for the rest of his life. He was wearing a full body suit underneath his clothes but he also wore a really big grin and remembered me as "Lily's friend who read me lots of books so I would sleep".
His grandmother hugged me and mumbled something in broken english, whatever it was, it made me cry.

Sophie's father set up the Day of Difference Foundation after her (first) accident to raise funds for hospital equipment and research in burns-related diseases.

Listening to: One/Metallica