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The little girl who made Kate Middleton laugh during Australian tour has tragically passed away
The little girl who made Kate Middleton laugh after playfully stealing her flowers in 2014 has tragically passed away after battling a rare degenerative disease.
Mia Murchison’s family announced their little girl had died on August 17, aged nine.
“Mia died this morning at home in our arms, as we hoped,” her mother, Peta, wrote on Instagram. “So incredibly sad and beautiful. So very loved and adored.”
A post shared by Peta Murchison (@bounce4batten) on Aug 17, 2018 at 1:30am PDT
In May 2013, where she was just four-years-old, Mia was diagnosed with Batten disease – a fatal degenerative disease of the nervous system which begins in childhood.
After Mia was diagnosed, her family documented her journey with Batten disease to raise awareness on social media and website Bounce4Batten.
During the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge‘s 2014 tour of Australia, Mia met the royal during a visit to a children’s hospital, Bear Cottage, based in the Sydney suburb of Manly.
At the time of the encounter, Peta recalled the moment on the Bounce4Batten website.
“Kate sailed into the garden gracefully and joined in singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and we watched enraptured as she interacted with the children,” she wrote. “She made her way around the group meeting each family and chatting.
“She listened so attentively to us and crouched down engaging with Mia which was very sweet and probably not very comfortable. Mia said the word ‘baby’ and Kate replied ‘yes, I have a baby, baby George.’”
One year on, Peta reflected on meeting the duchess again posting to Instagram remembering the funny moment Mia tried to steal her flowers.
A post shared by Peta Murchison (@bounce4batten) on Apr 4, 2015 at 7:56pm PDT
Born in Ireland, Mia was a healthy baby who started crawling at nine months and walking by 12 months, but her mother and father soon started to have some “mild concerns” when she turned two.
It wasn’t until August 2012, when Mia was three, when she had her first seizure which eventually led to her diagnosis of Batten disease nine months later in May 2013.
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