Earlier this week, a video of a nine-year-old Indigenous Australian who has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism shook the internet and public opinion.
Quaden Bayles was seen, in the footage shared by his heartbroken mother, crying uncontrollably and repeatedly asking for a knife to stab himself in the heart.
The child’s mother Yarraka Bayles in a moment of despair, decided to post the video that went viral on social media, asking for parents and society to educate their children against bullying.
Moreover, Mrs Bayles tells the camera that her son has previously attempted suicide. “This is what bullying does,” she says, “Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends?”
The video has garnered well over 20 million views on Facebook alone, prompting celebrities like Hugh Jackman to share messages of support.
California-based comedian Brad Williams who has the same condition, that essentially is a rare bone-growth disorder set up a GoFundMe page to take the boy to Disneyland. The page has raised more than $440,000 by Friday.
While most of the world was sending messages of support, many Reddit and social media users surfaced accusing Bayles and his mom of being actors trying to profit off people’s good will.
The accusations went as far as to proclaim Bayles is actually an adult and that the video was a scam.
However, the NRL community rallied together in support of the nine-year-old by having him lead the Indigenous All Stars team onto Cbus Super Stadium on the Gold Coast.
Young Bayles dressed in the team’s colours and carrying the match ball, got to high-five every member of his favourite team onto the field alongside captain Joel Thompson.
To top it up, the referee gave Quaden the chance to get proceedings underway, with a thumbs up before blowing the whistle.
At the same time, young Mr Bayle’s story had an impact on the acclaimed Greek actor Dimos Gigadakis, who also grew up with achondroplasia.
Gigadakis (little giant in Greek), who is based in Las Vegas uploaded a video to accompany his Facebook status in Greek sharing similar stories from his childhood.
“In this day and age, there are no humans to support a child [like Quaden]… Thank you again to all those people who stood beside me, especially during my childhood but also in my adult year. [Those] who never allowed me to go past those limits of despair when I too had to deal with such situations due to society’s perception in regards to my being different. And I’m sorry that nowadays there are [still] no people to support a child like this [one] and I don’t think he is the only one that is being treated this way. Again thank you. You know who you are.”