Symone's remains were brought to the cathedral by carriage this morning. Inset, Symone Rowley.

'Hero' Symone laid to rest today

She should have been Facetiming her hero Ed Sheeran today on her 13th birthday, but instead young Symone Rowley was laid to rest.

On Tuesday, the popular young person from Ardleigh Crescent passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by her loving family almost two years after being diagnosed with the rare spinal condition transverse myelitis, which left her paralysed from the shoulders down.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner yesterday, her distraught grandmother Rose said that Symone's funeral would be a celebration of her life.

“She is our hero. She is going to leave her home as a hero, brought in a carriage. She had planned her own little wedding. She said that she would have a white dress and a diamond tiara. That's what she is laid out in is her beautiful wedding dress and her diamond tiara. She is going to have her carriage and her horses. She is going to have everything.

“We love her so much, with all our hearts. She is not in any pain anymore. That just means everything to us. No more needles, no more hospital beds. She is in her big princess bed now that was specially made for her.

“We are going to give her a wedding day, not a funeral, a wedding day. Up in heaven she will meet her Prince Charming.”

Symone is survived by by her loving mother Hazel, father Jason, brother Oliver, sisters Angel, Skylar, Harley and her nanny Rose, uncle Jason, Thomas and Kenneth, aunt Roseanna, Mairead and Danny, cousins, relatives and friends.