Johnny Ruffo has bravely opened up about his brain cancer and how his long-term girlfriend Tahnee Sims will handle his death.
Ruffo was first diagnosed with the devastating disease in November 2017. Over the past five years, he’s shared updates with his fans about the uphill battle his enduring. Sadly, Ruffo has now revealed that his cancer is terminal.
“A lot of it you don’t remember because you go through such trauma, especially with the brain cancer,” he told Sunrise hosts of the devastating impact the cancer has had on his brain.
“My memory is nothing [compared] to what it used to be, so I forget a lot of things… [Writing] brings up things, whether it be happy or sad memories.”
He continued, “I felt like I was just kicking goals and I couldn’t miss. And then all of a sudden I just hit a brick wall and everything just came crashing down on me and the whole world came crumbling down.”
“But I am so grateful I’ve had this incredible support network around. Tahnee [Sims, his girlfriend] being one of them. Those people around you are the ones that keep you going.”
Sims and Ruffo met a at a dance studio in 2015 and have been dating ever since. During an appearance on The Project earlier this week, Ruffo spoke to host Carrie Bickmore about how his girlfriend will handle his death.
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“You can only imagine how difficult it’s been for her,” he began. “What plays in my head a lot is, I hate to say this, how hard it may be for her if something does happen to me.”
“So, it’s something that I don’t want to think about. It just gets me a little bit emotional about it because I know at some point something will happen, whether it’s, you know, a month from now or 10 years from now or 20 years.
“At some point it will get me but I’m still fighting. Still kicking on. Looking up my diagnosis and my tumour, the average life expectancy was three years.
“And for me it’s now been five years. I’m already winning. My goal now is to try and help as many people as I can and also live a happy life’.
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