Helen Mirren Grants Dying Child’s Wish, Has Tea With Him as Queen Elizabeth

Helen Mirren continues to prove how royally awesome she is.

Last week, the “Red 2” actress granted a terminally ill boy’s wish of meeting Queen Elizabeth — well, sort of.

Ten-year-old Oliver Burton, who has Down’s syndrome, was first diagnosed with leukemia in 2006 at just three years old. After a short remission, his cancer returned in 2010, and last Christmas was diagnosed with terminal spine and bone marrow cancer. Topping the list of the boy’s dream wishes was meeting the Queen and having tea with her at Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, his family was told the Queen’s schedule would not allow for it.

Enter Helen Mirren, who is playing the Queen in the show “The Audience.” The Dame fulfilled Burton’s wish last week when she brought him to see her show, and later took him backstage for tea and a visit with her corgis while staying in character the entire time. Oh, and, she knighted him, explaining to him he would now be known as “Sir Oliver,” according to the Daily Mail.

“It was a pleasure and a privilege to meet such a brave young man,” Mirren told The Sun.

As for Oliver, his father assures that he was more than satisfied with the royal treatment: “She stayed in character for the whole thing. Oliver thought she was the real Queen, and well, that’s good enough for us,” he told the Daily Mail.

[via The Sun h/t Gawker; Photo Credit via NCTLC Trust]