A delighted Arianna with her phone, which contains the only images of her late mum Janice

A grieving schoolgirl has been reunited with the iPod she lost before running the Dublin mini-marathon in memory of her mum who died seven months ago.

Arianna Harding (11) was devastated when she mislaid the device, which contained dozens of treasured photos and social media chats with her mum Janice who died aged 47 following a stroke.

The Navan girl ran the mini- marathon for the first time, alongside her aunts Hazel and Julie Harding, to raise funds for the Mater Hospital.

More than 60 schoolfriends from Cannistown NS and their families also took part in support of their pal Arianna.

She and her family had no luck finding the iPod after retracing their steps and had given up hope until Subway in Nassau Street rang nearly a week later to say it had turned up there.

"We'd tried everywhere and Arianna was just devastated to lose the iPod because of all the Snapchat screengrabs and pics on it of her mam," said Arianna's aunt Hazel

"Janice suffered a massive stroke last November and within three weeks was taken from her husband Eddie and her four children - Giles (16), Regan (14), Arianna and seven-year-old Carlina.

"We had virtually given up hope when Subway - where we'd eaten that day - rang us to say they found an iPod but the screen was all cracked.

"We drove up straight away last weekend and after charging it we discovered we still had all the photos."

Arianna said she was del- ighted to get back the precious device.

"It must have fallen out of my pocket. I never thought I'd get it back and was so surprised when I came home from school to the news," she said.

Online Editors