00:01Firstly, I'd like to thank our legal team who have worked tirelessly on our behalf for free.
00:06And to the nurses and staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital who have cared for Charlie and kept him comfortable
00:13and stable for so long.
00:15We would also like to thank everybody who supported us, including all the people here for us today.
00:21This is one of the hardest things that we will ever have to say and we are about to do
00:25the hardest thing that we will ever have to do
00:27which is to let our beautiful little Charlie go.
00:31Put simply, this is about a sweet, gorgeous, innocent little boy who was born with a rare disease,
00:39who had a real, genuine chance at life and a family who loved him so very dearly and that's why
00:45we fought so hard for him.
00:47We are truly devastated to say that following the most recent MRI scan of Charlie's muscles,
00:53as requested in the recent MDT meeting by Dr. Urano.
00:57As Charlie's devoted and loving parents, we have decided that it's no longer in Charlie's best interests to pursue treatment
01:05and we will let our son go and be with the angels.
01:11The American and Italian team were still willing to treat Charlie after seeing both his recent brain MRI and EEG
01:19perform last week.
01:20But there is one simple reason why treatment cannot now go ahead and that is time.
01:26A whole lot of time has been wasted.
01:29We are now in July and our poor boy has been left to just lie in hospital for months without
01:35any treatment
01:36whilst lengthy court battles have been fought.
01:39Tragically, having had Charlie's medical notes reviewed by independent experts, we now know,
01:44had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy.
01:51Despite his condition in January, Charlie's muscles were in pretty good shape
01:55and far from showing irreversible catastrophic structural brain damage,
02:01Dr. Urano and other experts say his brain scans and EEGs were those of a relatively normal child of his
02:08age.
02:09We knew that ourselves, because as it is parents, we knew our son, which is why we continued fighting.
02:16Charlie has been left with his illness to deteriorate devastatingly to the point of no return.
02:22This has also never been about parents know best.
02:26All we wanted to do was take Charlie from one world-renowned hospital to another world-renowned hospital
02:32in the attempt to save his life and to be treated by the world leader in mitochondrial disease.
02:39We all have to live with the what-ifs which will haunt us for the rest of our lives.
02:44Despite the way that our beautiful son has been spoken about sometimes,
02:49as if he is not worthy of a chance at life.
02:52Our son is an absolute warrior, and we could not be proud of him, and we will miss him terribly.
03:01His body, heart and soul may soon be gone, but his spirit will live on for eternity,
03:07and he will make a difference to people's lives for years to come. We will make sure of that.
03:12We are now going to spend our last precious moments with our son Charlie, who unfortunately won't make his first
03:20birthday in just under two weeks' time.
03:28And we would ask that our privacy is respected at this very difficult time.
03:32To Charlie, we say, Mummy and Daddy, we love you so much.
03:37We always have, and we always will, and we are so sorry that we couldn't save you.
03:41Sweet dreams, baby. Sleep tight, our beautiful little boy. We love you.
03:47Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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