Saoirse Ruane's mum Roseanna has opened up on the family's "unbelievably emotional" first visit to Santa following the passing of her daughter.
Saoirse, from Co Galway, shot to fame after she appeared on The Late Late Toy Show back in 2020, aged eight, to launch the Toy Show Appeal.
Saoirse's cancer journey began in 2019 and she received four diagnoses over four years. She sadly passed away in March of this year, at 12-years-old.
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Her parents Roseanna and Ollie have been open about how difficult it has been for them and their daughter Farrah Rose since losing Saoirse, making updates on social media in order to be more open about their grieving process and how they're doing.
The family visited Santa over the weekend for the first time since Saoirse's passing, with Roseanna described as a "painful stab" in the chest, RSVP reports.
Taking to Instagram to share a sweet video of Farrah Rose meeting Santa with a photo of Saoirse, Roseanna wrote: "Our visit to Santa on Sunday. "Our first as a family of 4 without our precious Saoirse, another first and one of the more heartbreaking ones which felt like a slow painful stab in the chest.
"It was unbelievably emotional with tears on the way over in the car watching Farrah Rose eagerly look out the back window in excitement to get to our location. Missing her companion and best friend to be excited with in the back seat."
She continued: "This visit was a very special one as it wasn't just any Santa, it was the Real Santa."
"The same real Santa that came to visit us at home two years ago, who joined us for tea and tart and a sing song. What Great memories. We decided to visit Santa in @wineport_lodge this year as this is where he likes to stay when travelling around the world checking in on all the boys and girls and doing his spot checks on the elves. They are very good to him there, he told us the food and accommodation is out of this world."
"Our emotions were evident from the moment we got there as were poor Santa's. There was lots of hugs, some serious style chat and a gentle reminder from Farrah Rose to Santa to bring something special for Saoirse. Poor Santa wasn't prepared for such emotion and lots of hugs were needed. Thank you Santa for being the most amazing Santa ever! A constant in a time of such uncertainty."
The comments were flooded with kind messages of support, with one person writing: "This actually melted and broke my heart at the one time thinking of ye all."
"That's absolutely heartbreaking, emotional and also beautiful at the same time," another said.
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