EARLIER this week, Jermain Defoe was asked to speak about his friendship with Bradley Lowery. He couldn’t do it. Sitting in a press conference to publicise his recent move to Bournemouth, the experienced England international was forced to wipe away tears. With his voice cracking with emotion, he stammered, ‘This is hard because I’ve kept it in for so long’.

Football is a sport that invites cynicism, and on paper, the concept of a close relationship between one of England’s best-known players and a six-year-old receiving end-of-life care is difficult to rationalise.

Is it simply put on for the cameras? No, it isn’t. I interviewed Defoe on numerous occasions during his Sunderland career, and each and every time he was at his most animated and passionate when talking about Bradley. When he picked up his trophy as the North-East Football Writers’ Player of the Year in December, he spent a couple of minutes talking about the goals he had scored for Sunderland. The next 15 were spent discussing Bradley and the charity that was helping support his treatment.

The Northern Echo:

Why did Defoe become so emotionally attached in the wake of a chance encounter with Bradley, who was chosen as Sunderland’s mascot for a game against Everton last September?

Sadly, footballers come into contact with seriously ill children on a fairly regular basis, but they don’t generally become close family friends or end up cuddling them on impromptu hospital visits.

The simple answer is that Defoe was touched by Bradley’s plight in the same way that the rest of us were. He couldn’t believe such a brave little boy was being made to suffer in so heart-breaking a fashion. He felt uplifted and energised by a flash of Bradley’s smile, with his own worries paling into insignificance when posited against the battles that were being fought by someone who cherished his company so much. And while it was hardly unusual for Defoe to be idolised, it must have been incredibly rewarding for the former Sunderland striker to be able to bring a ray of happiness into a situation that was otherwise bleak.

The Northern Echo:

In many ways, Defoe was simply displaying the kind of human emotions that most would regard as natural. But he still deserves immense credit for giving so much when he could easily have slipped into the background to resume his millionaire lifestyle.

Justifiably, football often gets a bad press. But it remains the nation’s game, and while he might only have been alive for six years, Bradley was still enraptured by its glamour and excitement.

The Northern Echo:

He latched on to Defoe as his idol, and his love was reciprocated by a ‘celebrity’ who hasn’t lost sight of what it means to be a good, charitable human being. Sometimes, in even the darkest of times, the most uplifting of moments can occur.