Mark Hamill makes Derry cancer survivor's dream come true

Mark Hamill makes Derry cancer survivor’s dream come true

Tue, 17 May, 2016 - 01:00

Ciara Flaherty

"I’m speechless. I don’t know how I’m ever going to write a status that will ever do justice to what just happened and how I’m feeling. Even now there’s a wealth of emotions running through me, I’m definitely still in shock, I’m absolutely elated, incredibly humbled, honoured and just completely overwhelmed."

Jamie Harkin has been a huge Star Wars fan since he was very young. And since all the cast and crew of the latest movie

Jamie, who has been very ill since January, and his mother Patricia began a social media campaign #StarWarsForJJ and on Monday, it paid off when Mark Hamill himself turned up "completely out of the blue" for breakfast.

And, in an emotional Facebook post, Jamie wrote it was everything he had hoped it would be.

"… When I stood up to shake his hand he told me, "Sit down, you don’t need to stand up for me." He chatted to everyone for a while, before turning to me, and he told me something that I really needed to hear after the last few weeks and months that I’ve had. I promised myself that I wouldn’t cry, but I just couldn’t help it, and then Mark hugged me and as he was sitting down, I saw that he was crying too."

Hamill chatted with Jamie and his family for over an hour and a half telling them stories and signing everything from light sabers to posters and Jamie says he was one of the most charming people he’s ever met:

"Seeing him like that, in normal clothes as opposed to Jedi robes, talking about normal things as opposed to saving the galaxy, he really is an extraordinary actor, not just because he played my childhood hero, but because despite being the star of the biggest franchise ever, he is still completely down to earth, and has remained human."