Ramsay Street says a gut-wrenching goodbye to Sonya in Neighbours this week.
After a tragic battle with cancer, the beloved wife, mother and friend spends her final heartbreaking moments in her husband Toadie’s arms before she dies.
Since her shocking diagnosis of stage-four ovarian cancer just weeks ago, the lives of Sonya (Eve Morey) and Toadie (Ryan Moloney) have been turned upside down. Wanting an escape, the family plans a beach getaway.
“Toadie starts the journey just wanting to take her away and get her a bit of a break,” Ryan, 39, tells TV WEEK.
Toadie and Sonya plan a trip to the beach to ‘get away.’
While Jade (Gemma Pranita) and the kids head to the beach house early, Sonya stays back for an appointment with a specialist. It’s then the doctor breaks the news that the cancer has spread.
Sonya decides to withhold the devastating diagnosis from Toadie even as she embarks on the holiday.
“She’s taking the time to think about and process it for herself,” Eve, 35, explains to TV WEEK. “She knows she has to empower Toadie to move on, to live on, to look after the kids.”
As they hit the road, however, it’s clear Sonya’s symptoms are worsening, and she starts to share her last wishes with Toadie.
“I think she knows the end is imminent,” Eve says.
Sonys knows the end is near.
Sensing her time is shorter than she imagined, Sonya breaks down. The mother-of- three questions the existence of heaven, which sends Toadie into a panic.
“She says to him: ‘You can’t tell me there’s a heaven. This is it − I’m never going to see you and the kids again’,” Eve says.
No longer able to keep her condition a secret, she reveals she only has days left to live. Toadie can’t believe it.
“Even though she says, ‘I’ve got days, maybe a week,'” Eve explains, “as she goes on, there’s a sense that ‘I know this is coming and there’s actually no hope.'”
Desperate and in denial, Toadie tries to take Sonya back to Erinsborough, but she refuses to go.
“He’s completely gutted,” Ryan says. “He doesn’t want to be at the beach. He wants to get her to the hospital ASAP.”
Toadie refuses to give up hope.
Determined to make it to the beach house and their kids, Sonya presses Toadie to keep going on.
When they arrive, Sonya struggles as she deals with physical pain and mental anguish. Making her way down the beach, she stops short of the children.
Not wanting them to remember her in such a state, she falls into Toadie’s arms and admires them from afar.
“In that moment, when she’s there looking at the kids with him, she realises that actually, this is heaven,” Eve says, recalling Sonya’s previous breakdown.
As she draws her last, heartbreaking breaths in Toadie’s loving embrace, Sonya finds peace.
“She dies content and grateful for the life that she’s had, which is pretty ideal,” Eve says with tears in her eyes. “Not a lot of people get that.”
Toadie holds Sonya in her final moments.
No amount of time or number of tissues will be enough to emotionally prepare for this goodbye.
Cancer is a disease that affects countless lives in one way or another, so it’s been heartbreaking and poignant to watch Sonya’s battle play out on our screens.
And watching her lose her fight is all the more devastating.
Sonya’s sudden illness has been an emotional whirlwind that culminates in a touching and beautiful episode of Neighbours. Tears are guaranteed.
Neighbours airs weeknights 6:30pm on 10 Peach.
