Ryan Reynolds proved he is just as thoughtful off-screen as he is on it after helping a mother during her baby son’s fight for life.
Jasmine Roberts appeared on ITV’s This Morning last year to explain that her son Ollie needed major heart surgery after doctors discovered a serious issue when he was only 2 weeks old.
In a bid to get him the treatment he required in the US, Jasmine launched a fundraiser that eventually brought in £1.5 million ($1.9 million). One of the people who contributed was Ryan Reynolds, who reportedly gave an “unbelievable” £10,000 to the cause.
The Wrexham AFC co-chair said he found out about the appeal after the wife of one of the club’s players came across it on social media.
Jasmine described his generosity as ‘absolutely unbelievable’.
Before the The Proposal actor made his donation, Jasmine had already learned that he was aware of Ollie’s story through the wife of Wrexham goalkeeper Callum Burton.
Following Ollie’s successful surgery, Jasmine returned to the This Morning sofa with her son to update hosts Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond on everything they had been through.
Speaking about his condition, Jasmine said Ollie’s pulmonary arteries were ‘so tiny he basically didn’t have any’.
She explained that his heart developed MAPCAs, rare abnormal arteries that form to carry blood to the lungs when the normal pulmonary arteries are underdeveloped or absent. According to Boston Children’s Hospital, MAPCAs can be associated with complex congenital heart defects and often require highly specialised surgery.
Jasmine said these ‘did not do the job properly,’ and added that Ollie also has a hole in his heart.
The procedure took 11 hours in total. While that sounds incredibly long, doctors had warned it might last as much as 24 hours.
Ollie still needs one more operation, but Jasmine said that treatment can take place in London, meaning there is no need for another trip to America.
Jasmine also said the fundraiser received about 100,000 donations in total. After her story spread online, she said Reynolds’ contribution ‘really kicked off the immediate media attention,’ helping the campaign gain even more momentum.
She revealed that £1.3 million ($1.7 million) came from smaller donations, while another £200,000 ($266,000) was raised through larger contributions.
More recently, Jasmine has said Ollie is continuing to recover well after surgery and, in a later update, said he had been discharged from hospital and was doing well.
The positive update on Ollie came shortly after Reynolds also made news by confirming that another Deadpool movie is on the way.
“There’s stuff upcoming,” he said at Fanatics Fest in New York.
“There’s eventually, you know, remotely another Deadpool film. It’s going to be great,” he added.