Archie Battersbee: A mother’s fight to save her son | UK News

It’s easy to see why Archie loved MMA. The fight ran in his blood.

Her mother, Hollie Dance, had sworn to ‘fight to the end’, and even the morning after losing her last legal offer to continue life-saving treatment, she held her coffee cup tight and spoke to me. of the plans she had to continue.

“I’m not one to sit and cry,” she said. “I’ve always been on the move. Do you know that I drive 40,000 miles a year for my kids?”

I don’t doubt her. With the exception of one day when I saw her in slippers, Hollie has always worn running shoes. Ready.

The single mother and former dancer worked seven days a week to ensure her children were well fed and brought up.

“I had to pay their own father to babysit them,” she said. “I did everything I could to support them in their passions; Archie’s MMA, Lauren’s (Archie’s sister) passion for horses, Tom (brother) with his boxing.”

“It’s too soon – people lie down for broken bones”

Our first meeting took place at court 44 at the beginning of High Court hearings in May.

The crowd of reporters outside were there for the ‘Wagatha Christie’ trial. In the Family Court press room that day, only two of us reporters listened to the proceedings taken by the Trust treating Archie after Hollie challenged their decision to give him a brainstem test .

Barts Health NHS Trust claimed Archie’s brainstem was dead and asked the court to grant them permission to carry out the test to prove it.

“It’s too soon,” Hollie told Sky News after the hearing. “Why can’t they give it a chance? People get longer for broken bones.”

She also wasn’t shy about addressing the very sensitive but serious issue of how Archie ended up in the hospital.

Hollie found Archie at their home in Southend-on-Sea with a ligature around his neck. She thinks he was taking…