Lisa Hunter praised the ‘mutual love and respect’ her son and the A-lister have and hopes it can inspire more people to learn about ROHHAD and help raise funds for research into cure
THIS is the moment Hollywood superstar Robert Downey Jr admitted he was nervous to meet ‘selfless’ Aaron Hunter for the first time.
Aaron, 8, struck up a heartwarming friendship with the A-lister after sending him a video asking for help in his fight against incurable illness ROHHAD.
7Aaron and mum Lisa
The youngster even met his hero in London and decided to challenge the Iron Man star to his ‘Muddy Puddle Challenge’ – Aaron’s new take on the Ice Bucket Challenge that went viral online a couple of years ago.
After Downey Jr danced around in the mud to Van Halen’s Jump, the Hunters were delighted to learn that he challenged the rest of The Avengers cast to do their bit and post their own attempts.
And mum Lisa revealed her son’s friendship and ‘mutual love and respect’ with Downey Jr has made him happier than she has ever seen him before.
7Aaron and Robert Downey Jr have become friends
She told the Scottish Sun: “Aaron spoke to us about helping the ROHHAD charity after one of his friends had passed away and he was really upset. He didn’t want any more of his friends to die.
“He initially wanted people to do the Ice Bucket Challenge but eventually we decided to come up with something different.
“He and his sister spoke about it and he said he wanted to jump up and down in muddy puddles and have lots of fun.
7RDJ in the middle of his challenge
“We asked him ‘who d’you want to challenge?’ and he just said ‘that’s easy, it needs to be Iron Man’. We went with it because we don’t know how long we’re going to have Aaron and it kind of became our mission to make things a reality for Aaron.”
Despite Aaron’s sky-high ambition to reach the American actor, Lisa and hubby Ian were desperate to make their son’s wishes come true.
7Aaron is desperate to raise money and awareness
And she explained that RDJ reached out after watching the original video sent by Aaron to him on Twitter – when he couldn’t get over how selfless Aaron was.
She continued: “We spoke to Robert about it all and he said it caught his eye because ROHHAD is a disease he had never heard of. When he did watch the video he was really touched by how selfless Aaron was and determined to help other children.
7The family with RDJ after he completed his Muddy Puddle Challenge
“For Robert, the big thing was seeing Aaron talk to him he said he couldn’t not help and he really wanted to get back in touch with us to help any way he could. Robert said it’s Aaron who is the driving force behind it all. He always knew and believed Iron Man would help.
“There is a mutual love and respect between Aaron and Robert. It’s really clear how much Robert loves and cares for Aaron and the other children who are suffering.
“Aaron is so excited to see the other Avengers doing their Muddy Puddle challenges as well.
“It’s the happiest I’ve ever seen Aaron in his whole life. At least half of his life has been spent in hospitals but he has a sparkle in his eyes now.
7Aaron on his way to London to meet his hero
“They’ve been building this relationship for the best part of a year and Robert has been in contact with Aaron a lot and he said he was more nervous about meeting Aaron than the other way around.
“Robert made the dancing in puddles look incredibly easy and fun and we were well impressed with his high-kicks. It made Aaron’s year seeing that in person. He loved the whole thing.
“They both want this Muddy Puddle challenge to be like the Ice Bucket videos when there was a video going around every minute.”
7Aaron as a baby before ROHHAD
“They both want this Muddy Puddle challenge to be like the Ice Bucket videos when there was a video going around every minute.”
ROHHAD is an extremely rare and life-limiting disease that affects tots and young children.
The condition causes organs in the body to malfunction and eventually fail and is considered a daily fight for survival.
It is considered a terminal diagnosis.
Robert Downey Jr meets with terminally ill Scots lad after online appeal goes viral
Downey Jr began a fundraiser for the ROHHAD charity foundation and Lisa insists the gesture is ‘incredible’.
But she is hopeful that it will inspire others around the world, and Scotland, to help out and raise cash for the valuable research and awareness that is desperately needed.
She said: “Aaron said ‘I know I’ll probably die one day because of ROHHAD, but heaven is a beautiful place’.
“He is more at peace with everything happening to him than we are.
“But Robert is only one person and we can’t do it with just one man. We need as many other people involved as we can. We need lots of heroes if we’re going to raise the money and awareness because without them we won’t find a cure.”
