Harry Styles is one of the happiest stars on the planet, with a smile for every fan - but a very different side of the One Direction hunk will be shown in an upcoming documentary for BBC’s Comic Relief, with the teenager moved to tears by the suffering of children at a hospital in Ghana.
The 19 year-old travelled with the rest of the band to the African country last month, and filmed a heart-breaking TV program that shines a light on the suffering of children.
In scenes from the documentary, set to air this weekend, the singer is seen breaking down in tears as he cradles a sick baby.
“He’s the smallest baby I have ever seen,” Harry says of the baby, who at just hours old is terribly ill from an infection.
“My mum worries about me all the time so I can’t imagine how terrible it must be for these mothers to see their babies so poorly,” he said.
“Looking into a tiny baby’s eyes and seeing their pain is terrible.”
One Direction spent time in the Princess Marie Louise Children’s Hospital in Accra to raise awareness of the need for vaccines against preventable disease. The teenagers might be some of the most famous on the planet, but were visibly humbled by the experience.
“At home we take vaccinations for granted. But not all children here have access to them and that can mean the difference between life and death,” Liam Payne said after he spoke to a distressed mother about her two month old daughter, who had been rushed to the emergency unit of the hospital.
“I’ve watched Red Nose Day appeals before and been in tears. But seeing these babies so sick is another level of sadness,” the clearly moved star said.
“You just don’t realise how hard life can be in other parts of the world.”
Harry Styles was moved to tears by the plight of one three year old who arrived at the hospital while the boys were filming. The young boy is seen being rushed into the hospital, with the team who examined him explaining that he’s “very, very sick with malaria".
“That little boy is too weak to hold his head up, or even cry. It’s so sad,” he said, “he’s lying there seriously sick, when a mosquito net could have protected him.”
He added: “Our parents worry about what we’ll be when we grow up but here the parents worry about their babies getting pneumonia and diarrhoea, which can both be prevented with £5 vaccines.”
The documentary is set to air at 6.50pm tonight on BBC1.
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