It's all smiles now that a new, inclusive photo of seven-year-old Miles Ambridge has been taken.
Anne Belanger was finally able to show her son his Grade 2 class photo, where he sits amongst his classmates at New Westminster's Herbert Spencer Elementary.
"He said, 'Oh Mommy, this is so nice,'" Belanger says, describing Miles' reaction to the new picture.
He never saw the old school photo, where Miles was set apart from his classmates in his wheelchair. The picture devastated his parents, and their story garnered attention after it ran on the front page of The Province. Media outlets around the globe, including the Toronto Star, Washington Post and the United Kingdom's Daily Mail, later covered the story. The original photo went viral with more than 4.2 million views on The Province's website, the paper reported Wednesday.
"All we wanted was a retake and an apology, and people just ran with it beyond anything we could (have) imagined," says Belanger, who was shocked by the reaction to the "heart-breaking" photo.
When she saw the new class photo, Belanger smiled. "I was really, really happy, and that was that," she says. Miles has spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that attacks nerve cells in the spinal cord, causing muscles throughout the body, especially in the arms and legs, to weaken. The disease does not affect cognitive abilities.
Miles' parents and the school principal contacted Lifetouch Canada, which at first didn't see a problem with the photo, according to the The Province. The company later agreed to reshoot the photo. In the new photo, a beaming Miles is out of his wheelchair and supported by a caregiver on a bench with his classmates.
