Johnny Ruffo dead: How Home and Away and The X Factor star credited partner Tahnee Sims for keeping him alive during brain cancer fight

Johnny Ruffo credited his longtime partner for saving his life and keeping him alive during the six years since his terminal brain cancer diagnosis.

The former Home and Away and The X Factor star, 35, died peacefully surrounded by loved ones in a Sydney hospital on Friday.

Among those with Ruffo in his final moments was his partner of eight years Tahnee Sims, who was there for all the highs and lows of his six-year battle with cancer.

Ruffo died just a week before Mrs. Sims’s thirtieth birthday.

Ruffo was first diagnosed with brain cancer in 2017, just two years after the couple first met at a dance studio.

He made no secret of the enormous support he received from Tahnee during his cancer journey.

Ruffo shared numerous enthusiastic messages and credited her with “saving” her life in several media interviews.

Ruffo (left) credited his longtime partner Tahnee (right) as the one who saved his life

Tahnee was the one who initially rushed Ruffo to the hospital after he suffered a series of persistent migraines.

Hours later, she received a call from doctors to say he was in a coma and had a brain tumor that required emergency surgery to remove.

“Without her, I might not be here,” Ruffo told Now To Love two years ago.

“She was the one who let me get in the car (to go to the hospital) when it (the headache) first happened.

‘And she encourages me to do things. She keeps me active and gets me running and swimming.”

Ruffo told me earlier Who magazine: ‘I was just home and had a headache, but everyone has a headache and you never think about it much.

‘It was already happening and it just got worse and worse. It got to about four or five in the afternoon and I couldn’t talk anymore, I couldn’t communicate with her (Tahnee) at all.”

“Next thing I know, I wake up on Tuesday and they say, ‘I had a brain tumor removed.’ When I finally came to, I was like, ‘Holy sh*t, this is serious.’

The doctors told Johnny that he would have gone to sleep at home that night and never woke up if Tahnee hadn’t rushed him to the hospital.

“I would have gone into a coma that night and Tahnee would have tried to wake me up the next morning and I would have just been gone,” Ruffo recalled.

Ruffo previously revealed that it was Tahnee who rushed him to the hospital in 2017 when he first developed severe symptoms. Doctors later told him that otherwise he would have died at home that night

Johnny Ruffo revealed earlier this year that he and his partner Tahnee never leave a conversation “on a bad note.”

Just a few months ago, the couple took time off from hospital visits and ongoing treatments to enjoy a romantic getaway at a ski resort in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Ruffo paid tribute to Tahnee in his most recent Instagram post: a video documenting his six-year cancer journey.

‘Six years after diagnosis…what a fighter!’ Tahnee wrote.

Earlier this year, Ruffo revealed to fitness influencers Steph Claire Smith and Lauren Henshaw on their Kicpod podcast that the loved-up couple never leaves a conversation “on a bad note.”

“You know I might have a seizure or something might happen,” he said.

“And I just want her to know that the last thing she talked to me about was that I loved her.”

Johnny Ruffo died peacefully on Friday with his partner of eight years by his side

Ruffo paid a lavish tribute on Tahnee’s 29th birthday last November, just three months after revealing the devastating news that his brain cancer diagnosis was terminal.

“Congratulations to this strong, incredible, amazing, beautiful lady who I am so lucky to call my friend, I hope you have a wonderful day,” he wrote.

A month later, the couple traveled to Ruffo’s hometown of Perth for what would be their last Christmas together.

The loved-up couple celebrated Christmas in Perth, not knowing it would be their last