An eight-year-old girl who helped plan her own funeral will be laid to rest on Christmas Eve after losing her battle with cancer.
Darcy Rae McGuire, of Glenrothes, passed away on Sunday after being diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer which affects just one in 20 million children.
Her heartbroken mother Carol Donald announced that Darcy had “gained her angel wings” peacefully in Rachel House.
Mourners at her funeral in Markinch have been asked to wear a hint of her favourite colour yellow.
Mother-of-five Carol said she couldn’t begin to tell people how devastated she and her children were.
Speaking of Darcy’s passing on Facebook, she said: “Darcy was truly one in a million and a huge part of my heart will never heal.
“I’m so grateful to have had eight amazing years with her.
“She has taught me so much in this last year and the strength she has maintained throughout is what will keep me strong.
“Fly high with the angels my precious dear Darcy.”
Doctors warned the family in November, when Darcy returned to the children’s hospice in Kinross, that it was unlikely she would make Christmas.
More than £10,500 was raised for the hospice in Darcy’s name, including through a Christmas market in November.
Darcy was only diagnosed with a cancer called chordoma at the age of seven, despite Carol suspecting there was something wrong with her daughter from the age of three.
The youngster, who had two operations as a baby to fuse part of her spine, had a lump on her spine and was in constant pain.
Repeated trips were made to her GP and specialists but it was four years before Darcy was diagnosed.
By then she had three large tumours on her spine and sacrum, which left her paralysed from the waist down, and her family were told she was terminal.
Brave Darcy helped Carol to plan every part of her funeral, where a collection for Rachel House will be held.