A three-year-old severely disabled boy has met his superstar idol Ed Sheeran.
Little Zac Cox, from Baldwin Road, Stowmarket, was rushed to hospital when his heart stopped beating when he was less than a week old.
He now sees a number of specialists for his complex mental and physical needs after he was diagnosed with a rare metabolic condition.
One of Zac’s favourite things to do though is listen to Ed, the singer songwriter from Framlingham. He saw him perform at the O2 in London on October 13 – but that wasn’t enough for his mother, Lauren, 27, who wanted to try and get Zac to meet him in person.
“He listens to Ed for sometimes 14 hours a day and if you try and turn it off or turn it down he will scream so we have to turn it back on,” she said.
“If he’s having physio and he starts screaming for whatever reason they can put Ed on and he calms down. It does not have to be a particular song, it can be anything.”
Mrs Cox decided to post a message on Zac’s Facebook page to see if Ed would agree to the backstage meet.
After the message was shared 18,000 times his management team decided to set it up and offered tickets for his Birmingham concert on Saturday.
Mrs Cox said: “Ed was lovely; really down to earth. Zac was a bit shy; he struggles to see and he was not making any noises. I could tell he was trying to use his peripheral vision to see who he was.
“I think it helped that Ed obviously knew the area where we are from and knew the East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices where Zac used to go.”
Ed even recorded a video message for Zac – with the audio from the recording being stored inside a teddy bear so whenever he squeezes it he hears his voice.
Zac went to the concert with his mum, brother Aidan, six and auntie Ashleigh Broughton.
To visit Zac’s JustGiving website go to: www.justgiving.com/maddzacstory.
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