Photo gallery: Friends rally to remember Ryan Wright, the ‘little fighter’

Ryan Wright with his parents Hayley and Darren and brothers Keenan and Ethan at Christmas last year. Photo: STEVE ADAMS

Ryan, 22 months, died just after midnight yesterday, surrounded by mum Hayley, dad Darren, family and friends, at his home in Fairview Road, North Walsham.

Mrs Wright said Ryan had battled to the end, surviving a week longer than the maximum two weeks doctors at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, had predicted.

'He was so strong. He fought and fought until his last breath,' said Mrs Wright.

Family friend and professional entertainer Ev Boothby was with the family through Thursday night and into yesterday morning after receiving a call from a distraught Mrs Wright who said Ryan would not survive the night.

Mr Boothby said: 'Everybody was round him. A nurse from Quidenham had arrived just before he died in Darren's arms.'

Ryan's older brothers Keenan and Ethan did not go to school yesterday. Mrs Wright said Keenan, nine, had been angry and upset that his adored baby brother had died, but Ethan, five, did not really understand what had happened.

Using social media, Mr Boothby invited all those who wanted to support the family to take flowers and candles to North Walsham Market Cross yesterday at 3pm for a vigil in Ryan's memory.

Dozens of people gathered, with some leaving toys of Mickey Mouse, which Ryan adored.

Mr Boothby and a cast of performers were also due to go ahead last night with a variety show at Mundesley's Coronation Hall in aid of a memorial to Ryan.

Speaking yesterday morning he said: 'I don't know how I'm going to get through it but I think it's right to carry on.'

Ryan was a Mickey Mouse fan, loving soft toys and music connected with the Disney character, and Mr Boothby said money raised would fund a Mickey Mouse headstone for Ryan's grave, at Mrs Wright's request, and a permanent memorial in the town - possibly a climbing frame or water feature.

Ryan seemed to be a perfectly healthy baby, reaching all his milestones, until he was seven months old when his mum noticed a protrusion on one eye.

Medical tests revealed the family's worst nightmare, that Ryan had a tumour caused by the cancer neuroblastoma, in its most aggressive stage four phase.

Over the following months Ryan underwent extensive treatment at Addenbrookes, including surgery to remove tumours and intensive chemotherapy.

He lost the sight of one eye and his hearing was impaired but he still loved to play with his older brothers.

Earlier this year his parents were delighted to learn that Ryan was free of the cancer, which affects about 100 children in the UK each year.

However, they were warned there was a strong likelihood it would return. Believing their best hope of treatment lay with specialists in Germany, they launched an appeal, supported by the charity Families Again Neuroblastoma (Fan) to send Ryan there for treatment, thinking their little boy would have two or three years of normal life beforehand.

But last month Ryan relapsed and more tumours were discovered in his brain. Doctors warned his family that there was no hope.

Fan launched an emergency appeal to try and send Ryan to New York for urgent treatment not available in the UK but the little boy was too sick to travel.

After a spell in the East Anglian Children's Hospice, at Quidenham, the Wrights returned home to spend their last precious days with Ryan in a family environment.

Fan founder Linza Corp said yesterday that they were absolutely devastated at the news of Ryan's death.

It brought back particularly poignant memories for her of the loss of her own son Max to the disease four years ago when he was 17 months old.