Soldier reveals how girl, 8, melted troops' hearts weeks before she died of cancer

(Left to right) Lt Joe Glennon, Jimmy Norman, Aoibheann Norman and Private Derek Kelly who was the Norman family's personal driver that day and said: "she's never out of my mind".

A veteran of the Irish Defence Forces has revealed that despite tours of duty in war-torn countries, he was forever touched by a meeting with a young 'angel' at an army camp just six weeks before she passed.

Derek Kelly said that eight-year-old Aoibheann Norman melted the hearts of even the toughest soldiers when the Army held a special day out for her as she was losing her battle to a rare form of cancer.