Ruby Tui won the Rugby World Cup for her country on Saturday night, but moments after that she gave her hard-earned gold medal to a young fan of hers who just beat Leukaemia.
After beating England by 34 - 31 in one of the most awesome games of rugby ever, Ruby was celebrating with the rest of the Black Ferns when she spotted a young fan, Lucia, in the crowd and put her winners’ medal around her neck.
“It was a moment not captured by the many cameras around the stadium,” ESPN wrote about when Tui actually handed the medal over to Lucia. “But a story relayed to two journalists, who happened across Tui without the medal early on Sunday morning.”
Luckily, another fan managed to capture this pic of when Tui handed the medal over.
Tui had met Lucia earlier in the week at a fan engagement event. Lucia told Tui that she can’t get enough of the Black Ferns and wants to put on the black jersey one day. After their little chat, Lucia’s dad went up to Ruby and told her that his daughter had recently recovered from a battle with blood cancer.
Lucia says that she broke down when the Black Ferns winger handed over the shiny piece of gold.
“After the game I hung around waiting for her,” she told Newshub. “She gave me a hug and took off the medal and gave me the medal.
“I was in shock and crying.”
Ruby Tui is amazing!!! Such a selfless, compassionate gesture that will stay with Lucia for the rest of her life.
Over the course of the World Cup, Tui has shot into the spotlight and become a fan favourite amongst New Zealanders. This was on full display when Tui grabbed the microphone and led the sold-out Eden Park crowd in a singalong to the classic waiata ‘Tutira Mai Nga Iwi’ during her post game interview.
She also encouraged all the fans to keep on backing the Black Ferns and women’s rugby in general, and it’s going to be pretty hard not to after that World Cup and the show that Ruby Tui and her teammates put on.
