Ruffo first found fame as a finalist on The X Factor Australia in 2011 and later starred on iconic soap Home and Away.
After he started seeking help for debilitating migraines in 2017, he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and underwent surgery to remove a 7cm tumour from his frontal lobe.
He had chemotherapy and radiotherapy before going into remission but told his fans in November 2021 that his cancer was back.
Ruffo opened up in August last year to The Project’s Carrie Bickmore and revealed that his cancer was terminal.
“At some point, it’s going to get me ... but I’m still fighting, still kicking on.”
“Looking up my diagnosis and my tumour … the average life expectancy was three years,” he continued.
“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”.
He admitted in another interview with The Daily Telegraph that he had started thinking about death, but he wasn’t giving up on his fight.
But it was the possibility of not having all of his family members around him that scared him the most, he said.
“I’m scared for my brother, my mum, Dad and Tahnee that they won’t be here with me [when I die],” Ruffo admitted.
“There is no way my family will all be here. The likelihood of that is [slim]. It would be ideal if everyone was there – not for my sake, but theirs.”
He then got emotional when talking about his girlfriend, who he called his “guardian angel”.
“She is living with it as much as I am. She is here with me every step of the way. I’m so very grateful to have her by my side, I don’t know what I would do without her,” he said.
