Notorious Prisoner Charles Bronson Sends Get-Well Card To Girl With Leukaemia

Notorious Prisoner Charles Bronson Sends Get-Well Card To Girl With Leukaemia
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Britain's most violent prisoner has revealed he has a softer side - by sending a get-well card to a three-year-old girl with leukaemia.

Armed robber and kidnapper Charles Bronson, who has been in prison since 1974, sent the hand-made card to little Francesca Allen.

Under a sketch of song birds holding up Francesca's name, Bronson wrote: "Get Well Fast - We all Love Ya!"

He also donated a pencil drawing depicting a prisoner in Broadmoor wearing a one-man-band-style contraption labelled 'Broadmoor Lunatic Asylum.'

The picture will be auctioned off to raise cash for Frankie's Fund and is expected to fetch up to £1,000.

Bronson wrote to Francesca, who is known as Frankie to her family, after he was told about her condition by pen pal Darren Holdcroft, who has written to Bronson for eight months.

Frankie's mother Karen Allen said: "At first I was quite taken back by it. The picture he has drawn is really nice and it is very nice of him to be donating one for us to auction off too.

"He isn't the sort of man you would associate this kind of thing with, so I was shocked really, we all were.

"I just want to say thank you to him for taking the time to write to Frankie and to think about her, the money we may be able to raise for Frankie's Fund from his picture will be very helpful.

"When we do finally go home, I am hoping to write back to him to say thanks, but I don't know what to say, he's the last person I want to upset. My thoughts of him have changed dramatically since this.

"Frankie has been rough recently, she's been put through it, there doesn't seem to be a light at the end of the tunnel at the minute."

Frankie, who has two sisters, aged 14 and 10, has been treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital since she was diagnosed almost four weeks ago.

Darren, 34, from Stoke-on-Trent, has been writing to Bronson for eight months.

The father-of-two said: "I know Frankie because she is my goddaughter's best friend, so once I heard, I just wanted to do something to help.

"When I told Charles about what was happening he was more than happy to help because he loves children and when he heard about her it just really tugged at his heartstrings.

"People hear that he is a criminal and automatically think he is a bad man, but he has done a lot of good things over the past 30 years. He is a reformed character."