And that is the way he likes it.
Rather than being seen as that "very sick little boy" with lymphoblastic leukaemia, the Middlemarch 8-year-old wants to be seen as "normal" — out playing with his friends, riding his bike and playing football.
"He doesn’t like people to make a fuss over him," his mother, Emma, said.
He was diagnosed with cancer in April last year when he started to become tired all the time and stopped walking.
"The nurse took bloods off him," Miss Taylor said.
"Then we got a phone call saying we had a very sick little boy. It was pretty scary."
She said they spent 122 days in Christchurch’s Ronald McDonald House where he started receiving treatment.
"His body’s very sensitive to chemo.
"When his hair fell out, Ryan took it all in his stride.
"He took it really, really well.
"I don’t think a lot of kids would put up with what he’s put up with."
Ryan is now back at school and is continuing to take oral chemotherapy to keep his cancer in remission.
"Now he’s feeling the best he has felt in a long time."
And just in time for the Wig Wednesday Child Cancer Foundation fundraiser today.
Miss Taylor said the charity was so important for families in her situation.
"It never used to be important to me, but you never know what’s just around the corner, do you?
"I want to help support families going through the same thing we’ve been going through, so I’ll be wearing a wig on Wig Wednesday."
She will be among many in schools, workplaces and community groups around the country wearing wigs, shaving heads and styling funky hair-dos to show their support for children with cancer.
