Lady Gaga’s biggest “Little Monster” got her wish Wednesday, scoring the first hug from the megastar at a meet and greet following her show at the Air Canada Centre.

Walking into a room of about 25 excited fans, or “little monsters,” as they’re known, Gaga called out for Avery Fournier, a 10-year-old blind brain tumour survivor whose dream was to meet her idol.

“Avery put up her hand and she said, ‘OK, you get the first hug,’ and she gave her a big old squeeze,” says Avery’s mom, Chris Fournier. “I was sitting behind her trying not to cry.”

Gaga later posted a photo of herself with Avery and her mom on Instagram, adding: “sometimes the media does something truly special and brings people together. Thank you for posting about her story so I could be with her and her mom they are wonderful and inspiring.”

The Grade 5 student from Chatham was left legally blind after surgery in December to remove 70 per cent of a tumour at the base of her cerebellum.

She relied on Lady Gaga songs such as “Donatella” and “Bad Romance” to get through the tough moments. “Born this Way” was her anthem when she was teased by kids at school for being different.

A kind stranger on Kijiji gave Fournier two tickets to Gaga’s ArtRave concert after learning of Avery’s situation, however because the seats were in section 300, Avery could hear, but not see, her idol.

Wanting to give her daughter the chance to meet Lady Gaga in person, Fournier contacted the Star on Tuesday to share her daughter’s story.

With some help from Gaga fans, who tweeted the story, a representative was in touch Wednesday with some great news: Avery and her mom would be meeting the pop star after the show.

“All I wanted was for them to kind of be nose to nose so that she could really see, and they were nose to nose for 30 seconds. It was just all Eskimo kisses,” says Fournier.

Dressed in a black wig and a white shawl that Fournier says reminded her of “something my mother would wear in the ’70s,” Lady Gaga spent about 15 minutes chatting with Avery, telling her to ignore bullies at school and to be herself, in what Fournier calls “a little Dr. Phil session.”

Avery, who calls the experience “awesome,” says that although her parents tell her these things all the time, “just hearing the voice from someone else” makes all the difference.

She says playing with Gaga’s black French bulldog, Asia, was her favourite part.

“She was messing around and she caught my leg,” she says.

Avery may have been slightly star-struck, but her mom says she could see a difference in her daughter right away.

“When we got in, you could see that she was a little hunched over and maybe a little bit nervous or whatnot as to what she was going to say. But after Gaga got done talking to her, you could see that good old confidence come back. It was amazing,” she says.

“It was just like they’d been friends forever; it was just incredible. It was like a big-sister little-sister type thing.”

Fournier says she’s “over the moon” but never really expected her dream to come true.

“I just wanted to get her story out to inform people — if you have small children get their eyes checked on a regular basis, because you never know. I don’t want this to happen to any other family.”

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In Ontario, all children are covered for one free eye test a year. Avery’s tumour was found at the eye doctor. Fournier says the doctors told her that if they had found it even one week later, she could have died.

Thankfully, Avery now has a much happier memory to carry with her.

“The confidence that (Gaga) instilled in Avery is incredible, and I know she will take that from last night and she’ll keep it forever,” says Fournier.

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