When Ali France lost her leg trying to save her newborn baby from a car accident, it wasn’t her own pain that caused her the greatest pain; it was the terrible thought that she had almost lost her son.
Heartbreakingly, despite the mother and her son Zac miraculously surviving the devastating crash in 2011, they have had to come face to face with grief again – this time with a much more tragic outcome.
Former Labor politician Mrs France has shared her heartbreak after her eldest son Henry – Zac’s brother – died of leukemia at the Royal Brisbane Hospital four weeks ago.
Henry was completing his HSC when he was diagnosed with the disease in November 2022, and spent most of the last 18 months in hospital.
Ali France (photo left) announced on social media on Friday that her eldest son Henry died of leukemia
Henry has been battling the deadly disease since November 2022 and lost his father Clive to cancer in September last year
“Henry did everything he had to do to be a survivor, to stay with us,” tweeted Ms. France, a mother of two.
“Our health care workers did everything they could, but all the love and medicine in the world wasn’t enough.”
Mrs France said every day since she lost her son felt like a year.
“He was loud (in the best way), so funny, full of hope and so loving. “I just want him to tell me ‘love you mom’ again,” she said.
“He watched his friends go to school, college and jobs from his hospital bed and encouraged them. He simply accepted what was in front of him; he was the definition of brave.”
Mrs France added that her son was passionate about sport and loved everything from cricket to football to NRL.
‘His glass was always overflowing with life and energy. “He was a loyal friend, he always said sorry, he had an opinion about everything, he never stopped laughing and he moved with great speed and enthusiasm, which sometimes got him into trouble,” she said.
Mrs France also lost her ex-husband Clive to cancer in September last year.
Henry was simultaneously battling cancer and was transported by ambulance to say goodbye to his father.
The former Labor politician lost one of her legs in a horror crash in 2011
‘We were all broken. He (Clive) lasted long enough for Henry to recover enough to spend more time with his father, in another hospital,” Ms France said.
Mrs France said her youngest son Zac has now tragically lost both his father and older brother in the space of six months.
“Right now it’s raw, brutal devastation, but I trust that we will transition to a space where we will focus more on honoring Henry,” she said.
“I would do anything to spend more time with my Henry.”
During the crash that left her leg in May 2011, Ms France had been waiting for a lift at the High Point Plaza shops in Brisbane when an out-of-control car crashed into her.
The older man behind the wheel crashed into the mother, who was pushing her son in a stroller at the time, causing her to slam into another car.
Milliseconds before the car hit her, she tried to push her son Zac, who was in the stroller, out of harm’s way.
The collision severed an artery in her left leg, leading to the loss of the limb, but her own injuries were not what haunted her in the days and weeks after the crash.
Henry (left) and his younger brother Zac France are seen with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese
“No one realizes that it wasn’t so much that I lost my leg, but that my biggest fear of almost losing a child was the biggest problem for me,” she told the newspaper. Courier mail in 2018.
‘What a lot of people don’t know is that while I was trying to push Zac out of the way, I couldn’t and he ended up under the car. He was very lucky.’
A mother carrying her own newborn discovered the chaos moments after the crash and placed her own baby on the ground as she reigned under the car and pulled Zac to safety.
Other than a deep burn on one of his legs from one of the car tires, he was somehow largely unharmed.
Two passing men put the car – whose driver was still pressing the accelerator – in neutral and physically lifted the car off her.
She then started bleeding and was only saved by the quick-thinking men who mauled her leg with one of their shirts.
Ms France unsuccessfully ran against Opposition Leader Peter Dutton to contest Dickson’s marginal seat in the 2019 federal election.