‘Our hearts Saoirse took
■ GIRL INSPIRED APPEAL WHICH RAISED MILLIONS
AN EMOTIONAL Ryan Tubridy said he was “in shock” yesterday after he was told about the death of Saoirse Ruane — as he paid tribute to her “beautiful soul”.
The 12-year-old Toy Show star passed away on Tuesday following a long and courageous battle with cancer.
Announcing the heartbreaking news, Saoirse’s family wrote: “After a long courageous and dignified battle our hearts are shattered to tell you our beautiful little
Saoírse took her final breath in our arms on Tuesday.”
Speaking on his Virgin
UK radio show, Ryan, who became great friends with the inspirational young girl through the Late Late Toy
Show in 2020, told listeners:
“Children shouldn’t die. It is not fair and it is not right”.
He said: “I thought it was appropriate to talk about one of the most extraordinary young people that I ever met who had such an impact on us as a country some years ago.
“I’m slightly in shock and I am desperately sad but that’s not the issue here. The story is about Saoirse and the Ruane family and the good people of Kiltullagh and her broader circle of aunties, uncles and cousins that I am thinking of.”
Tumour
The youngster captured the hearts of the nation when she appeared on the 2020 Toy Show and spoke about her fight with a rare form of cancer, an osteosarcoma tumour on her fibula. The treatment led to intensive chemotherapy and the amputation of her right leg.
Ryan said: “For whatever reason, Saoirse and myself got on the minute we met on the Toy Show.
“She came in, she had a prosthetic leg. She told her story and she was shy and she was humble and she was twinklyeyed with her smile as she told everybody that yes she was sick and yes she knew it.
“But she didn’t want to bring everyone down and she wanted to make the world a better place.
“She was one of those young people who you just thought ‘you have every reason to be sad and you have every reason to be angry and you have every reason to be upset’ and yet look at you here smiling, laughing and having fun and seeing the good in everyone.
“She was the best of who we are. She was the best of who we could be. She was the kindest soul.”
He said it “doesn’t feel right” that she has passed away.
“Children shouldn’t die. It’s not fair and it is not right and when somebody like Saoirse dies you have to think, ‘well why?’” he said.
“In those short 12 years she has achieved enormous things. She became Ireland’s daughter, Ireland’s niece, Ireland’s goddaughter.. somebody we could relate to.”
Saoirse was the inspiration for the annual