Archie Battersbee's mum highlights importance of new BBC drama

The mother of a boy who battled doctors over her son's life support said she hoped a new BBC drama on a fictitious case would help people understand what "parents are going through".

Archie Battersbee, from Southend-on-Sea, had his hospital life-support treatment withdrawn last August.

The first episode of Best Interests, starring Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan, was broadcast on Monday.

"It is important it's highlighted," said mother Hollie Dance.

"Because unless you go through this it's impossible to understand what the parents are going through."

A coroner concluded that Archie was found unconscious at his home on 7 April last year following a "prank or experiment" that went wrong.

He suffered severe brain injuries and never regained consciousness despite receiving mechanical ventilation and drug treatment at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.

The family fought to maintain treatment, but judges at the High Court and Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Barts Health NHS Trust, whose doctors said life support should end because he was "brain stem dead".

Best Interests, a four-part series being broadcast over the next fortnight, is the work of Jack Thorne, who wrote the TV adaptation of His Dark Materials and co-wrote the stage play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

The BBC One drama tells the story of parents opposing doctors who feel it is in the best interest that their daughter Marnie, who has a life-threatening condition, is allowed to die.

Ms Dance said she was still working with Conservative MP Anna Firth over a change in legislation that would make it easier to take patients abroad to explore alternative treatment.

"Why shouldn't you be allowed to take your child abroad if somebody else is offering some help, even if it is just the slightest bit of help," she told BBC Essex.

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