Olivia Newton John death: Picture shows Grease star with Perth girl Emily Barker during secret hospital visit

Pictorial proof has emerged of Olivia Newton-John’s secret visit to a grief-stricken Perth girl just a month after she suffered critical injuries in a 2003 crash that killed her mother.

Emily Barker was one of WA’s most promising young singing stars at 11 — and a big fan of Newton-John’s — but her life was changed forever when she was traveling in a car that collided with a truck in Beechboro.

Former Princess Margaret Hospital public relations manager MJ Wallace told The West Australian the girl’s now-late father Ron had called Newton-John’s record label to see if she would visit his daughter while she was in Perth for a concert.

The singing superstar did not hesitate, on the condition no media were alerted to the visit.

But a personal family picture of the pair tells a multi-faceted story of the physical difficulties Emily still faces in her life in Perth as a 30-year-old, as well as the selflessness described as typical in the wake of Newton-John’s death , aged 73.

Emily’s father said at the time that Newton-John had promised to do a duet with the girl when she recovered.

Kerry Bradford, who ran the Morley Dance Studio where Emily was a student, was in the hospital room on one of her daily visits to the girl when her singing hero walked in.

Mrs Bradford had been “good friends” with Emily’s parents, who were keen ballroom dancers and teachers, since before she was born.