Stuart Mangan, the man from Fermoy, Cork, who was paralysed while playing rugby last year, passed away last night.
Mangan had been making the most of life after the freak sporting accident and was living independently in an apartment in London.
However, he went back into hospital on Thursday after contracting pneumonia and died yesterday evening.
Since the accident, which occurred while playing a rugby match for Hammersmith & Fulham in April 2008, the community of Fermoy, Mangan’s friends and the Munster rugby fraternity rallied round to raise funds to help pay for care for the 25-year-old.
Today Stuart’s father Brian thanked everyone who had rallied around and said the family had already been inundated with calls.
“I would like to thank all the people who rallied around Stuart after he had what was a tragic accident.
“He showed incredible courage afterwards to turn his life around. We appreciate the enormous goodwill from people,” he said.
The Mayor of Fermoy, Cllr Noel McCarthy, knew Mangan growing up and said he was always a very popular and bubbly person.
“This news is such a shock to the whole community. Every organisation in the town had rallied around and had done something to raise money for Stuart. He was one of our own, a really popular and special person.
“He had a great affect on people after the accident and inspired everyone who met him. It was such a freak accident and he was just unlucky,” he said.
Cllr McCarthy said Mangan maintained his positive attitude after the accident and that this outlook on life had an inspirational effect on everyone who met him.
He said the thoughts of the whole town were now with the Mangan family.