Lily-Mae Morrison, the Claregalway girl whose cancer battle touched the nation and beyond, is getting ready to take to the stage as part of the Baboró International Arts Festival for Children in Galway this weekend.
The eight-year-old, who overcame neuroblastoma - a rare and extremely aggressive childhood cancer of the nervous system - is part of the cast of Alice Underground, which will be staged at Galway's Town Hall Theatre on Sunday. Both performances are sold out.
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"It's called Alice Underground," Lily-Mae explained to RTÉ News.
"And I'm Little Alice. So when Big Alice drinks the potion, I come out of the door and I'm the Little Alice."
"This year she's celebrating three years cancer-free," said Lily-Mae's mother Judith Sibley, "so we're absolutely blessed.
"We're blessed to have such a perfectly healthy, amazing little girl." Both Lily-Mae's mother and father, Leighton Morrison, are professional dancers.
Lily-Mae's story came to international attention when a supergroup of Irish performers recorded a cover version of Elton John's 1971 classic Tiny Dancer to raise funds for the youngster.
A 300-strong chorus of singers and performers including Paddy Casey, Mary Black, Mundy and The Riptide Movement joined Lily-Mae's parents on the track, which reached the top spot in Ireland in 2012.
Elton John tweeted his support for the song and urged his followers to buy the single on iTunes. A statement on his official website at the time read: "A beautiful version of Elton and Bernie [Taupin]'s song Tiny Dancer has been recorded in Ireland as a way to raise money for the care of Lily-Mae Morrison, a four year-old Irish girl who has neuroblastoma."
When John played Dublin's 3Arena in December 2014 he met Lily-Mae and talked about her before performing Tiny Dancer.
"One of the nicest things that happened in the last 18 months was that a group of Irish entertainers and musicians got together and made a record to enhance the life of a little girl called Lily-Mae," he told the audience.
"That they chose one of my songs to actually perform the record or whatever was a huge compliment and I was very, very touched and loved what they did with the song," he continued.
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Alice Underground is just one of a number of plays, demonstrations, exhibitions and workshops taking place across Galway this week as part of Baboró.
The festival runs until October 23 with full details available at the festival website here.
