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| Pop Idol Dream Date For Emma |
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| Since January, Emma Harrod-Jones has suffered from bowel disease. KATHARINE BARNEY spoke about how she has coped with her illness - and met two of her heroes. As pop star Darius sang to Emma Harrod-Jones on the stage of Nottingham's Royal Concert Hall, she looked as overawed as any other 13-year-old. Clearly enamoured with her hero, she grinned as he hugged her on stage and sang his next single Girl in the Moon in front of an adoring crowd. But there was a particular reason it was Emma on stage. She suffers from the incurable bowel disease chronic ulcerative colitis. Since January she has been in and out of hospital, and is still not able to attend school full time. She spent the first month in the Queen's Medical Centre, and was then allowed to return home to Sleaford in Lincolnshire for a day, before returning to hospital for another couple of weeks. The last time Emma was in hospital was before Easter - and she is now hoping to be able to control the disease through medication at home. But Wednesday night was some compensation for the pain she has endured. It was not until a couple of hours before the concert that the brave youngster found out she was going to meet her idol. It was arranged by When You Wish Upon A Star, the Notts-based charity which grants wishes for poorly youngsters. Emma said: "I was given the two tickets and with them was a note saying, 'Congratulations - you are about to meet Darius'. I couldn't really take it in at first, but then I was so excited. He was really nice when I spoke to him afterwards, very chatty and friendly. I haven't been able to tell all my friends yet, but Mum said there were a few girls in the audience giving me jealous looks." But meeting Darius was not Emma's first brush with stardom. Before Easter she met Ronan Keating through When You Wish Upon a Star - at Century FM in Nottingham. And while she was there Emma admitted to a charity organiser that Darius was her favourite pop act. Emma's mum Louise, 36, said: "I'm positive meeting Ronan got her through Easter and kept her out of hospital. Meeting Darius will keep her out for the rest of the her life. She's just been incredible throughout the whole thing and she's only cried once. "She's a brave girl." Thankyou to Nottingham Evening Post for the story |