THE parents of little Charlie Gard say the BBC drama Best Interests left them reeling after some of the most heart-breaking scenes in the drama mirrored their own devastating fight.

Chris Gard and Connie Yates revealed how watching the new series – about a family torn apart by the decision to withdraw care from their terminally ill daughter – took them back to their own heartache in 2017.

Charlie was born in August 2016, and was diagnosed with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome – a rare genetic condition that causes muscle failure and brain damage.

His parents reveal that – like characters Andrew and Nicci, played by Michael Sheen and Sharon Horgan – they also found out doctors weren’t going to fight to save him when a palliative care doctor introduced himself at a meeting.

They are now campaigning for Charlie’s Law, which would prevent the NHS from being able to take parents of terminally ill children through the courts – and hope that scenes like those in this show will become a thing of the past.

And they hope that seeing a fictional family being torn apart by a similar court case will help them gain backing for Charlie’s Law.

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Speaking from their home in Inverness – which they share with Charlie’s little brother, Oliver, now two – Connie, 37, said: “Some of the scenes really knocked me for six.

“There are so many moments that really were just like looking in a mirror, it was a real punch in the gut to watch.”

Fans have been gripped by the four-part drama, which ends tonight and sees a couple drawn into a legal battle over their daughter Marnie’s right to die.

The story of the dispute between Marnie's parents and the doctors, who believe it is in the child’s “best interests” to be allowed to die, is eerily similar to tragic Charlie's case.

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And a moving scene where a palliative care doctor is invited into a meeting with the family was art imitating life – as Charlie's parentswent through almost exactly the same thing.

Connie said: “When Charlie was diagnosed, we were invited to a meeting at the hospital with lots of specialists.

“They went around the room and introduced themselves, and one man said he was from the palliative care team.

“We didn’t even know what condition he had and already it felt as though they’d already decided his fate.

“The rest of the meeting was an absolute blur, our heads were spinning.

“Nobody should have bad news delivered like that. It was really cruel and unnecessary. There has to be more respect for parents.”

Chris, 38, added: “Watching that play out on TV felt like a punch in the gut."

The couple fought back tears as they explained how Best Interests mirrors other elements of their own fight.

Connie says: “The scene where Nicci ticks off Andrew for crying at their daughter’s bedside really hit me hard."

“We had the exact same rule. We’d come out of court, having lost another appeal, sob all the way to the hospital, but tell each other ‘no crying in front of Charlie.’

“We’d sneak off to the loo and sob – but like Andrew in the series, we both found ourselves in tears at Charlie’s bedside.

“The biggest difference for us is that Charlie was conscious and reactive to us all the way through – he would look up at us and we’d just struggle to hold it all together.

“Those scenes of the two of them on the court steps just really brought it all flooding back to us.

“Going to court was terrifying. Everything in our lives at that point felt so out of control but when we walked into the court room we felt like imposters.

“It really felt like we were living in a film at the time. But that was our reality for nine months.”

Connie and Chris’s battle with doctors made global headlines in 2017.

Although several doctors from around the world offered Charlie experimental treatment and the family raised more than £1.3 million in funds, London's Great Ormond Street Hospital blocked them from allowing Charlie to leave the hospital.

They argued that it was not in his best interests – despite offers of support from the Pope and then-president Donald Trump.

Chris says: “We want to do what we can to help others now. And stopping the cases being taken to court is our main objective.

“It destroys the family, costs the NHS a fortune, and stops everyone being able to do the one thing they need to do more than anything else – care for that child.

“We had never been in a court room before then, we had no idea what was going on – it just felt so incredibly unfair.

“Looking back now, I don’t know how we actually got through it.”

Charlie’s Law, which is currently being considered by the Government’s review into disputes regarding the care of critically ill children, would prevent cases being taken to court by encouraging mediation between doctors and parents.

It would give parents the right to move their child to another hospital, if they were offered treatment elsewhere, which currently can be denied by the hospital.

Connie said: “We would never want to do anything that is not in the best interests of the child, but as seen in the programme, often we all have different ideas of what their best interests are.

“We have worked really hard with doctors, including some of the ones that fought against us with Charlie, to come up with a solution to this problem.

“We propose that as long as allowing the parents to explore other treatments would cause no significant harm, then they should be allowed to explore that.

“We know that dozens of families go through this every year and we want to do all we can to help them.”

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