“I know what it is to be alone and hungry,” she said.

Six months later, the Sawyer Fields Clinic opened. There was no gala, no wealthy guests — just hundreds of people, street workers and the elderly among them, lined up to see a doctor for free.

Alistair stood on a small wooden stage beside a large photograph of Sawyer in his school clothes.

“This place exists because a ten-year-old boy wanted to heal the poor,” he told the crowd. “It also exists because grown, wealthy people cared more about money and family names than a child’s life.

I was one of them.”

The reporters listened in silence.