Shielding Mila - Hold Still

Good morning, Your Royal Highness. Good morning, my goodness me, you're so polite, Mila. I wanted to call you both to say thank you very, very much for sending in your fantastic photograph and I'd love to hear more about both of you and about your photograph and also about your daddy because he's in the photograph as well, isn't he, Mila? Yes. Yeah? Do you want to tell me about your daddy? How come you couldn't see him for so long? Because he had to look after me because I went for treatment. Yeah. And was it really hard not seeing him? Yeah. When he came into the house, I was, like, so surprised. Did he have to be a very brave girl with mummy? Well, we love your photograph. Do you have a costume? I'm not wearing a princess costume right now, I'm afraid, Mila. Do you have lots of dressing up outfits yourself? Yes. Yeah? What's your favourite colour? Pink. Pink, okay. Well, I have to make sure I go and try and find myself a pink dress so that hopefully one day, hopefully, Mila, we'll get to meet and then I'll remember to wear my pink dress for you. Yay! Would that be nice? Mila, how old are you? I'm four. You're four? My goodness me. It's a very small age, Mila, four, to have a big operation. Were you very brave? Yes. Yeah? You were a very strong girl, weren't you? Are you all back now together living in the same house now with your big sister? Yes. Linda, tell me, how are you doing? It must be so challenging for all of you during lockdown being separated and not really knowing, you know, when or how long you were going to be separated for. I think initially we took the decision to isolate separately the week before lockdown because we were very conscious about what was happening certainly in Europe and the UK at that time. For us, lockdown did come with a bit of a silver lining because you're still going through treatment and our immune system is compromised. Lockdown for us, you know, allowed us a period of time to just focus on our treatment without any interruption of illnesses and viruses in general, not just COVID. But we've had our ups and downs and Scott and I are so proud of Mila and Jodie, my eldest, through this time and the challenges that they've had to overcome. And families like yourselves need the support and the reassurance from the communities that they live in more than anyone actually. That's why, you know, I think I felt, I think the judging panel also felt that your story was such a powerful one for that reason. You know, these stories have been going on behind closed doors and it's not the stories that everybody hears about. Absolutely, yeah, I would completely agree with that and it's an amazing project, really heartfelt and, you know, we experienced a different range of emotions looking back at other pictures as well. So, yeah, it was fantastic, you know. Who sent it in? Was it you or was it Scott? I was in lockdown with Mila and my mum had saw the segment with yourself and Holly and Philip on the morning, talking about home still. Yeah, and she had sent me a text, my mum, and had said, you know, I really think that picture's certainly quite poignant and you should submit it, so we did. And I'm very grateful. And also for sharing such a, you know, personal time. You know, it will be an image that's part of a national archive and, you know, it tells a story of this particular time and a very personal story to you, so thank you so much for sharing it. I know one of their names. Do you? What's their name? Can you remember? Yes. What are their names? Charlotte. Yes. Who else? George. George, and there's one more. Louie. Yay! Louie's got so big now. He's very quick running around and he's on his little scooter as well. He's very quick. I can't keep up with him. You like to go on your scooter too, don't you? Yeah. What's your favourite thing to do, Mila? What do you like doing? I like walking my doggy. Oh, what's your doggy's name? Mr Cole. His name is Cole, but Mila has always called him Mr Cole. Mr Cole. Very sweet. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time, Linda and Mila. Will you say a big hello to your daddy too when you see him? Is he at work today? He is working today, yeah. Yeah. And your big sister too. She's doing lots of her hard work at school, I'm sure. Yeah. Well, it's lovely to speak to you. Thank you again for sending in your photograph and I wish you all the best and good luck for Mila for her ongoing treatment as well. That's amazing. Thank you so much. I really appreciate your call. Not at all. Take care. Thank you. You too. Bye, Mila. Bye.