A nine-year-old boy who was bullied for his dwarfism has led out the Indigenous All-Stars team after a video of him crying and asking to end his life went viral online.
Australian schoolboy Quaden Bayles shot to fame as an anti-bullying ambassador after his mother Yarraka filmed him crying in the family car on Wednesday.
The Murri boy was invited to walk the Indigenous team onto the pitch at Cbus Super Stadium, on the , as they took on the Maori All-Stars on Saturday.
The crowd erupted in cheers as Quaden entered the field hand-in-hand with captain Joel Thompson at about 8pm.
He was dressed in an All-Stars jersey, donned black noise-cancelling headphones and clung to the match ball as he strode into the middle of the pitch.
‘Couldn’t help but get watery eyes and a lump in the throat seeing Quaden Bayles smiling and leading out the Indigenous All-Stars,’ one viewer wrote on Twitter.
‘Goosebumps watching Quaden Bayles walk out the Indigenous All-Stars,’ wrote another.
The crowd erupted in cheers as Quaden entered the field hand-in-hand with captain Joel Thompson about 8pm
Quaden poses with Adam Blair and bisaqq Joel Thompson before the All-Stars match on the Gold Coast on Saturday
Quaden was dressed in an All-Stars jersey, donned black noise-cancelling headphones and clung to the match ball as he strode into the middle of the pitch
Quaden stopped at the half-way mark to pose for a pre-match photo with a referee, Thompson and Maori All-Stars co-captain Adam Blair.
Before entering the field, the nine-year-old gave high-fives to the squad members of the Maori All-Stars.
The Indigenous All-Stars were defeated by the Maori All-Stars 30-16 in front of more than 20,000 fans.
Quaden was earlier snapped smiling with commentator and former North Queensland Cowboys star Johnathan Thurston.
Thurston was one of many sports stars to stand behind the schoolboy in the wake of Wednesday’s distressing video.
‘Quaden….stay strong buddy; you are loved!To the bullies….THIS IS NOT OK,’ he wrote on Instagram earlier in the week.
The Indigenous All-Stars squad filmed a video for the schoolboy on Thursday, letting him know they were on his side.