Gareth Bale Visits Cardiff Hospital to Surprise Ill Young Fan

During the brief festive break in La Liga action, Real Madrid's Gareth Bale headed back to his native Wales, where he delighted a young fan with a surprise hospital visit. 

Four-year-old Cian Case spent Christmas in Cardiff's University of Wales hospital with cancerous spinal and brain tumours he was diagnosed with earlier in the month. 

In a wonderful festive gesture, Bale stopped in to see Cian for an unscheduled visit. 

Cian's father, Richard, said (per Wales Online):

"

Most of the VIP visits to the ward over Christmas were pre-planned and we were aware of who would be arriving at any given point; but Gareth turning up on Christmas Eve was a total shock.

I was in my scruffs as we were just preparing to bath Cian ready to get him into his new PJ's and the arrival of Santa. If I had known of Gareth's visit I would have at least been wearing my Wales shirt, which I'd only changed a half hour earlier.

There was no media accompanying him, so you could tell it was a gesture that he wanted to perform rather than feeling obliged to.

"

Bale, who was accompanied by his girlfriend on the hospital trip, also came armed with presents for Cian and his fellow patients. 

[Wales Online]