JK Rowling Fulfills Dying Girl's Wish

Harry Potter author JK Rowling made a dying girl's dream come true by reading her new book to her so the youngster would know what happened before she died.

The millionaire writer phoned Catie Hoch to read out stories from her unpublished manuscripts as she worked on her latest book. The author, real name Joanne, kept up the amazing friendship with emails, gifts and phone calls so Catie would know how the Harry Potter stories would develop. After Catie, from Albany in New York, died the author told her parents their little girl had left, "footprints on my heart." Rowling also made a private donation of $100,000 to a cancer fund set up in Catie's memory. Catie's mother, Gina, told Britain's Sunday Mirror newspaper, "I will be forever grateful for what Joanne did. She gave us something priceless by having this relationship with Catie."

The youngster was six when she was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, an aggressive childhood cancer. Catie was nearly at the end of the third book, Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, when doctors revealed she had just weeks to live. Catie was desperate to know what happened in the fourth book, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire, on which Rowling was working at the time. So a family friend sent an e-mail to the author's publishers in London ­ and days later the author sent back a personally written letter, calling herself simply Jo. The two began exchanging letters and e-mails during the course of their amazing friendship. But as cancer gripped Catie, Rowling realized the youngster only had days to live ­ so she telephoned from her Scottish home to read the latest tales about the young wizard over the phone.

Gina adds, "We laid Catie down on the couch, and Jo read to her over the phone parts of the manuscript. Catie's face lit up." The author rang three or four more times but Catie grew so ill she could not longer listen ­ and died on May 18, 2000.

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