Featured Image Credit: PA / Hollie Dance
Topics: News
Ali Condon
Archie Battersbee's mum, Hollie Dance, has said that she was "so touched" by the hundreds of people who attended her late son's vigil over the weekend.
The 12-year-old boy had passed away last Saturday (6 August) in the Royal London Hospital, after court ruled that his life support should be turned off.
On Sunday, 14 August, Archie's family, friends, and loved ones gathered in Priory Park, Southend-on-Sea to remember the young boy.
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People gathered in their hundreds, all following the event's purple theme, bringing along purple balloons, wearing purple 'Archie's Army' t-shirts, and even holding a purple flare in the air.
Addressing the crowds who gathered to remember her late son, Hollie thanked them for her support over the last number of weeks.
"Thank you so, so much for supporting us while we were in that awful place,” she said.
“I hope you all stand by me in trying to change this law, Archie’s army, so that no more of our children and their parents go through this.”
Speaking at the vigil, Hollie told ITV News that she was blown away by the turnout, admitting that she didn't expect so many people to turn up for Archie.
"These are people from his home town, I didn't actually expect as many people to be here", she said.
"Just people coming up saying they've followed Archie from the start and his journey... it's really touching."
Hollie found her son Archie unconscious with a ligature over his head in their Essex home back in early April.
Since then, he had been treated at Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London.
Hollie believes he blacked out after taking part in an online challenge.
Eventually, doctors informed the family that Archie was brain stem dead and recommended that the young boy's life support be switched off.
When Archie's family took the matter to court, a High Court judge ruled that switching off the support was in his best interests, but the family appealed the decision once again, arguing that Archie needed more time.
Mr Justice Hayden described Archie's situation as a 'tragedy of immeasurable dimensions' after he was found unconscious at home.
But he said that there was evidence of 'significant injury' to 'multiple areas' of Archie's brain that painted a 'bleak' prognosis for the possibility of a recovery.
Subsequently, the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights also ruled that Archie's life support should be switched off, and denied the family's requests to have him moved to a hospice to die.
Asked at the vigil how she would like her son to be remembered, Hollie Dance answered: "For the fun-loving little boy that he was. He's just energetic, very sporty, very talented little boy."