Ross Kemp turned up at Selly Oak hospital, Birmingham where all the wounded soldiers are brought to be treated while Laura was in Intensive Care. There was no publicity, no press, no TV cameras or anything just him and a soldier he'd met while making one of his TV shows and kept in touch with.
He went round the soldiers and their visitors talking to each in turn for as long as they wanted, signing autographs and having photos taken. Just to brighten the day up for them. And it really worked.
It's easy to be cynical about celebrity hospital visits and so on, but this was a genuinely altruistic visit and- as with the fantastic work I saw done by Help For Heroes the whole time I was there- it's important to remember that whatever the rights and wrongs of our actions in the Middle East (they're wrong obviously) these kids didn't choose the conflict and don't deserve the consequences of our misbegotten crusades.
I can't tell you how heartbreaking it is seeing huge numbers of kids who don't even need to shave yet being wheeled around because they've lost limbs to roadside bombs. Nor getting to know their families quite well and then suddenly never seeing them again because the young soldier died overnight. I wept daily for what I saw.
Anyway, I'm on a tangent. He may make rubbish TV shows, dress really badly and need to lose a few pounds but Ross Kemp really went up in my estimation then.
