A SICK 11-year-old girl was inspired to write a poem encouraging tolerance while having treatment for suspected meningitis.
Eversley Primary School pupil Atalia Saied-Gordon put pen to paper one evening when she couldn’t sleep during a week-long stay at Basildon Hospital.
She was inspired to write the poem after a visit from Olympic gymnast Max Whitlock and his team-mates.
In the 19 verse poem called Feelings she writes: “Just because I’m Spanish or French or from Peru doesn’t necessarily mean I am different from you.”
Another line says: “I am just as human, I am just as sane whether black or white I can’t complain.”
Another verse says: “I am probably ugly, fat, dumb but I have a heart.
“So is that why you’ve been hurting me from the start?
“Hurting me physically, socially or mentally, emotionally? Can you show me some respect?”
The schoolgirl had been rushed into the hospital by her worried mother Abbie Saied-Gordon, 35, after doctors feared she might have meningitis earlier this month.
After several scans doctors discovered she had a bad sinus infection which was effectively treated with intravenous drugs and oral antibiotics. She was discharged in time to go home for Christmas.
She said: “I have been thinking about bullying and if people were bullied how they would feel.
“When I was bullied I felt really sad and quite lonely. When I wrote the poem I was looking at it in a different perspective.
“I thought how would someone from a different race or different country feel if they were bullied?
“I believe that no one should be ashamed of who they are.”
Atalia wrote the poem in her final evening at the hospital on December 20.
She showed it to her mother the next day, who then posted a picture of it on Instagram and took a video of Atalia reading it out loud.
The schoolgirl, who has an eight-year-old brother Marley, said she has already finished another poem about money and consumerism.
Her mum Abbie, a mother-of-two, said: “It was amazing, I am in complete awe of her. It was a little threatening that someone so young can articulate themselves in such a way.
“I feel I have to nurture her so this talent doesn’t spiral out of control because she is very sensitive about what goes on around her.”
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