Ryan Reynolds Sends Touching Message to Boy Recovering From Heart Surgery

Hollywood star Ryan Reynolds has recorded a special video message for a young boy recovering from open heart surgery.

Ivan Hollingsworth, from Newcastle, England, took to Twitter on Tuesday asking for help in finding a Marvel superhero actor who might be willing to send a message to his "brave" son Seb, who is currently recuperating following his operation.

"Long shot I acknowledge, but I think he deserves it!" he wrote. "Who's up for the challenge?"

Posted alongside the hashtag #HeartHeroSeb, the post earned over 10,000 likes, with several notable stars from films like The Avengers and Marvel Studios itself tagged by those retweeting the post.

Reynolds, who stars as the wisecracking anti-hero Deadpool, was the first to answer the call, replying Hollingsworth's tweet: "Can you open your DM's?"

Hollingsworth immediately replied, "OMG!!! Opened! Seb will go wild. This is Seb's bedroom!!!"—alongside a picture showing a poster for Deadpool in his son's room along with another for Free Guy, another movie starring Reynolds.

On Wednesday, Hollingsworth returned to social media to share footage of the moment Seb watched the special message that Reynolds had recorded for the boy who is recovering post-surgery.

In the video, Hollingsworth fights back tears as he hands Seb his phone to watch the message.

"Hi, I'm Ryan. You can call me Deadpool, call me Green Lantern, call me anything you like, call me baby, I don't mind," Reynolds jokes in the clip.

"I know you're going through it pal," he says. "It sounds like you've got a ton of amazing people who are in your corner and love you very much. I just want to send you all my well wishes and send you all my love."

"I hope we get to meet in person one of these days pal," he added. "Hang in there, you are doing a-mazing and I'm super proud of you, alright Seb."

Sat up in his hospital bed, Seb lets out a stunned "woah" as Reynolds' message concludes before thanking the actor for recording the video. "Look at that smile," his dad says. "He called you, buddy!"

"Seb, Ryan Reynolds knows who you are," Seb's mom Nadine can be heard commenting as the video concludes. "And he didn't swear, which is pretty amazing."

Hollingsworth shared the video online alongside a caption thanking the "very awesome" Reynolds for making their "Heart Hero's day."

At the time of writing, the emotional footage had been viewed over 280,000 times.

Seb had to undergo life-saving open-heart surgery when he was just 16 weeks old at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle. Now 13, this latest round of open heart surgery was completed to improve his heart function.

Hollingsworth told ITV: "It's hard to explain how he feels because he is so, so exhausted but it really meant the world to him. And Ryan has since sent another follow-up video, which I can't share, but it definitely made him chuckle."

"It's just amazing that he's taken the time to do it, and it's not just for show, it means a lot," he added.

Since Seb's first life-saving operation as a baby, Ivan and Nadine Hollingsworth have made it their life's ambition to raise money for the Freeman Hospital Children's Heart Unit, where their son was treated.

The Children's Heart Unit Fund has raised money towards providing important facilities in the unit, all with the aim of helping other children with heart defects.

Both Ivan and Nadine Hollingsworth have been involved in a variety of fundraising endeavors. In 2014, Seb officially opened a £330,000 playroom next to Ward 23 in the Children's Heart Unit, which was completely funded by his parents' efforts.

Newsweek has contacted the Hollingsworths for comment.