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Movies & TV

27th Nov 2021

Toy Show viewers can’t get enough of Finn from last night

Ellen Fitzpatrick

He captured the hearts of a nation.

Friday night saw the return of the Late Late Toy Show, with people from 100 countries around the world tuning in for the annual festive event.

With its Lion King theme, the show featured plenty of impressive music and dance numbers, including a lovely opening medley of ‘Hakuna Matata’ and ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’.

On top of appearances from boxer Kellie Harrington and singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, the show also featured host Ryan Tubridy interacting with some amazingly strong and talented children from across Ireland.

While there were too many highlights to name, one little lad seems to have captured the nation’s affection after revealing his battle with cancer to Tubridy.

Finn showed off his Lego collection and spoke about how it got him through his cancer treatment and broke our hearts when he said that his mum would help him put the pieces together when he was very poorly.

Bravely telling Tubridy and the viewers his story, Finn explained that when you’ve finished cancer treatment, you get to ring a bell to tell the ward you’re “done with cancer.”

As he rang the bell during the Covid-19 pandemic and only his parents were allowed to witness it, Tubridy brought out a bell for him to ring and have the world show their support.

But all didn’t go as smoothly as when Finn took to the bell, he was so excited and rang it so hard that he broke it, only making the situation more memorable.

Viewers could not deal with his bravery and positivity, hailing him “brilliant.”

JOE staff, who were live-tweeting the show, wrote: “Finn deserves all the lego, all the love and the ENTIRE WORLD!”

It was after this moment that Tubridy surprised the boy with a trip to Legoland in Denmark, which managed to only make the smile on his face get even bigger.

Melting hearts even more, Finn later returned to the stage to give Tubridy a badge that he had forgotten to give him to raise awareness for children’s cancer.

You can watch a clip of Finn’s appearance below.

Clip via The Late Late Show

This year’s Toy Show appeared to be a major success, raising over €3.3 million for charities by its end.

Meanwhile, Chief Technology Officer for Revolut Vlad Yatsenko wrote on Twitter that he has personally donated €100,000 to the show’s appeal and will also match any further donations this weekend via the Revolut App up to €1m.

It comes after Toy Show viewers were faced with technical difficulties while trying to donate to the appeal through the app.

“What an incredible support Revolut App customers gave to a worthy charity,” Yatsenko said tagging The Late Late Show.

“Granted, there were some challenges at the peak of the live campaign. So, I’ve personally donated €100k, and will also match any further donations this weekend via the Revolut App up to €1m.”

The public can still donate to the appeal on RTÉ’s website here and through the ‘donations’ tab on the Revolut App.

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