Parents tell of precious last holiday with Ruby

MEMORIES: Daughter died soon after trip following brave battle with illness

The heartbroken parents of young Ruby Stewart have described the dream holiday they spent with their “happy and giggly” daughter before she died.

Ruby, who had been battling stage four alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma since 2017, died of pneumonia just weeks after returning from her special Christmas trip to Lapland.

Ruby travelled to the Finnish region with mum and dad Claire and Andy but on her way home started feeling unwell.

Admitted to the high dependency unit in Ninewells with a collapsed lung and suspected pneumonia, she was then transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit in Edinburgh.

During her hospital stay, and following several scans, as well as the confirmation she was suffering from pneumonia it was discovered Ruby’s cancer had also spread behind both of her eyes.

Claire said: “If she hadn’t lost her life to pneumonia she would have had to have a lot more treatment because her cancer had spread, which is not something that we would have wanted for her.”

Ruby spent Christmas in hospital in Edinburgh with her parents and family.

Claire said the Lapland holiday was a magical trip for the entire family.

She said: “Ruby loved Lapland. She probably wasn’t as well as we would have liked her to have been.

“She still managed to have lots of laughs and do all the things that we had planned to do. She got to meet Santa, she got to meet huskies, go on a husky ride, meet reindeer, feed a moose and go sledging. Those were the main things.

“It was just nice to be away, the three of us together for the last time.”

Tributes poured in following Ruby’s death on January 3.

The keen dancer and swimmer from Inchture, between Perth and Dundee, was a popular figure in her own hometown and further afield.

During her final months she had worked with copywriter Kevin Anderson to make a book called The Unicorn with the Ruby Horn.

Claire said: “There are a lot of words that people use the most to describe her like happy, funny, brave, bubbly, sassy, bright, kind, caring, beautiful. She was all of those things, but to us she was just Ruby.

“She has inspired so many people who haven’t even met her. It’s hard for us to comprehend really how much reach she has had and how many people she has touched.

“She was just so happy, daft, giggly and funny. I think what we will remember the most about her is just having fun.

“We are immensely proud of her and we are going to miss her. But we are going to do everything we can to keep her memory alive.”

A celebration of Ruby’s life will be held in Inchture Parish Church on Friday at 2.30pm, two days before what would have been her seventh birthday.

Donations can be made at the church for Ward 29, Ninewells Hospital, where Ruby was looked after.

Those attending are asked to wear something pink.

Ruby Stewart and her parents in Lapland, on what her mother Claire said had been a magical trip for the family.

Ruby Stewart, who made her parents immensely proud.