An everyday hero who anonymously donated £1,000 to a seriously ill toddler with cancer has died after being struck down with the disease himself.

Aaron Laws was the kind of man to give away the last pound in his pocket to somebody more in need - and never was that more true than when he saw the plight of Ruby Young in the Medway Messenger and dug deep.

But three weeks later the father-of-two began experiencing constant headaches and was diagnosed with was soft tissue sarcomas after tumours were found on his heart and brain. The labourer passed away on Thursday - his 35th birthday.

His fiancée Sarah Henry said: “He had a heart of gold and would help anyone he could even if he didn’t have much to give himself.

“He said to me recently, 'when’s it going to stop, when’s the pain going to stop?' It broke my heart" - Sarah Henry

“He got a bit of compensation after an accident at work and wanted to do something good with it. He asked me if I minded him giving it to Ruby, and of course I didn’t. He wanted to remain anonymous at the time, but now it seems right that people know what a generous a and kind man he was.”

He made the donation in October, and in November was diagnosed. The disease spread quickly throughout his body, to his lungs and his liver.

Sarah added: “The cancer is quite rare, there isn’t a lot known about it, but we were told straight away it was terminal. Aaron didn’t want to know how long he had left, he just wanted to fight it for as long as he could. He was so brave. He wouldn’t let it beat him down, he kept his spirits up.”

He suffered a seizure and a stroke, which landed him in intensive care and the family man deteriorated drastically over the last few weeks.

Sarah, from Portland Road, Gillingham, added: “He said to me recently, 'when’s it going to stop, when’s the pain going to stop?' It broke my heart, I just wanted to take the pain away.”

“He broke out of hospital to go and buy me a ring and get some Christmas presents. He was a complete nightmare, really, he shouldn’t have been out but that’s what he was like." - Sarah Henry

The couple have been together eight years and Aaron proposed to her in November.

“He broke out of hospital to go and buy me a ring and get some Christmas presents. He was a complete nightmare, really, he shouldn’t have been out but that’s what he was like."

He leaves behind two daughters; Amelia, four, and Kasie, 13.

Speaking through tears she added: “Amelia looks like me, but she is just like Aaron in her mannerisms.

“It’s going to be really hard for her without him. She doesn’t really understand at the moment, she thinks he’s going to come back after a holiday.

“She will start school for the first time in September, and Aaron is missing that. There is so much he will miss, not watching her grow up.”

His death is all the more painful for parents Paul and Sheree after they lost another son, Brett, around 16 years ago.

Brett passed away aged just 22, after an immune system deficiency he had battled since the age of 11. There are now only two remaining siblings, Dean and Kirsty.

The tragedy continues, as family pet, Red, died on the same day as his owner.

“Our dog, Red, was very poorly as well as he had to be put down the same day, just hours before Aaron died.

“Aaron bought him for me about seven years ago, but it was always more his dog really, they were incredibly attached to each other.”

“He was an ordinary man, but overwhelmingly generous. How much grief can one family take? There’s no justice in this world." - Anita Marinelli

Although no funeral arrangements have yet been made, the family plan to bury Aaron with his brother at Woodlands Cemetery.

Anita Marinelli, who co-ordinated the Ruby Young fundraising campaign and raised £500,000 in less than a year to save the three-year-old, also paid tribute to Aaron.

She said: “He was an ordinary man, but overwhelmingly generous.

The family have now lost two sons and he leaves behind two daughters, one around the same age as Ruby. How much grief can one family take?

“There’s no justice in this world. It’s so unfair.

“Ruby is a bit of a mini celebrity now and we had money coming in from everywhere over the last few months, but he got involved before we had really got going with the fundraising, I think we only had at £6,000. And he stayed in contact the whole time, even through his own treatment. I'll never forget him."

A Go Fund Me page has been set up in tribute to his own generosity, to help towards funeral costs: www.gofundme.com/rw24u7sg