A cancer patient who cooked with Gordon Ramsay as part of her bucket list has died at the age of 10, her mum has confirmed.
Sophie Fairall, from Stubbington, Hampshire, was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma - a rare type of cancer that forms in children's soft tissue - in September 2020.
Despite bravely battling through a number of surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, her cancer returned in June of this year, prompting the family to draw up a bucket list of things to achieve.
In doing so she cooked with TV chef Gordon Ramsey, grabbed the attention of the England football team and raised tens of thousands of pounds for charity.
To date, an online fundraising page in her name has raised £50,000 for the children's cancer charity Alice's Arc.
Her devastated mum Charlotte confirmed the news today on social media.
She wrote: "'I'm absolutely heartbroken, pain I can't even describe, all I can say is it's the most painful thing I've ever experienced. Part of me died today and I will never be the same again.
"Sophie had so much more to give and it shouldn't have been this way. She was the most beautiful, funny, caring, strongest girl ever."
She added: "Who would've thought a 10-year-old could have such a huge impact on so many people.
"It feels so surreal and although I knew she was dying I still can't believe she's gone.
"Sophie had so much more to give and it shouldn't have been this way.
"She was the most beautiful, funny, caring, strongest girl ever.
"She would light up a room wherever she went."
TV stars Ant and Dec and footballers Jack Grealish and Mason Mount are among those who shared messages of support throughout Sophie's battle.
In video messages, Mount praised her "incredible bravery", while Grealish added: "Carry on being the strong little girl that you are."
Sophie captured the hearts of the nation in July when she appeared on This Morning with her mum and dad, who said doctors had given her only six months to live.
But despite the devastating diagnosis, Sophie remained positive and wrote a list of things she wanted to experience.
"She had a 12-inch tumour that was removed back in September," her dad explained.
"Unfortunately, she relapsed in June back after nine months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. So they've told us there's no cure for it now but Sophie, being Sophie, wants to be positive."
Sophie's mum said that they had decided to stop her treatment, which "hadn't been an easy decision".
"We know what the consequences are of stopping treatment," she said.
"I think for us, quality of life was definitely more important at the time. Selfishly, for us, it would be the time. But we thought, actually, with the effects of the chemo and this new chemo that we were on wasn't actually working, we felt that actually the [right] decision was to stop the treatment."
One of Sophie's wishes on her list had been to visit the This Morning studio and when asked whether it was what she imagined, she said: "It's smaller than i thought... I thought it was real windows!"
