Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, uses a camera with a telephoto lens to view the Comet C/2020, also known as "Neowise", on her first outing following almost five months of lockdown during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak as she received treatment for cancer in the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, at Marfa Ridge outside Mellieha, Malta, July 23, 2020. "I absolutely loved seeing the comet and Milky Way as I've always found anything to do with astronomy and the night sky very fascinating. I had never seen such a beautiful night sky and it felt nice to be outside again!" said Rebecca at the time. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Hospital chaplain Father Mario Attard of the Capuchin Friars, holding a relic of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, blesses 14-year-old cancer patient Rebecca Zammit Lupi, as she sleeps in her room at Rainbow Ward in Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, June 3, 2020. "Rebecca's peaceful silent presence persuasively reminded me of Cardinal Robert Sarah's phrase on silence, as found in his book The Power of Silence: Against the Dictatorship of Noise: "The word is not just a sound; it is a person and a presence. God is the eternal Word, the Logos." By what she was, said and did Rebecca was, is and will be for me Jesus Christ in person," wrote Father Attard. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Physiotherapists Zach Gatt, Jonathan Dimech and Angele Azzopardi help Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, sit up on her bed in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, receives a gift from radiographers Maria Elena Grech and Angelina Dimitrova after what was supposed to be her final radiotherapy treatment session at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, June 4, 2020. Dimitrova said "I did not expect to get so attached to Rebecca, but I think she had a talent to make people love the light in her smile and the purity of her heart. Although her body was already frail when we met, her mind was always sharp and spirit empowering and strong. Becs fought for what she believed, including making schooling available to those confined within the walls of a hospital, and I think that was a testament to her desire to learn, to grow and to give back through her talents and passion." REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, performs some basic dance exercises for the first time in months, outside her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, May 15, 2020. Rebecca was a very keen ballet, hip-hop and contemporary dancer before getting ill with cancer. "There are no words to describe how much I miss dancing. Dancing was like my way of communicating without words. I loved dancing with my friends and hope to do that again in the future!" said Rebecca. Reverend Brendan Mark Gatt spoke about the photo during Rebecca's funeral - "This graceful young woman, her body already ravaged by illness, standing in a hospital corridor which – however many cartoon characters you paint on the wall – will never be a place of fun and joy. And yet her indomitable spirit speaks to us even through this picture. What could have been a depressing image, a forlorn reminder of loss, of dashed hopes and unachieved potential is transformed; with Becs at its centre and through the eyes and lens of a loving father it becomes an image of hope, a reminder that hope is stronger than despair, and that life and love will have the final word, not death. For Becs, a hospital hallway railing became a dancer’s barre at which to practice her ballet moves; she reminds us that even through unimaginably excruciating physical suffering, the dancer inside her remains free." REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, 12, reacts after her dog Cookie licked her face while playing in a field outside the village of Mellieha, Malta, January 26, 2018. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, is wheeled out in her bed by her mother Marisa Ford and nurse Martina Vella into the corridor to see the Christmas decorations adorning Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta December 19, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Nurses Naomi Balzan and Nanette Azzopardi administer pain killers and sedatives to Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, as her mother Marisa Ford looks on, shortly before she passed away in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta January 3, 2021. This was the last photograph Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi took of his daughter while she was still alive - she passed away 57 minutes later. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, sleeps in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Nurse Mary Rose Bugeja prepares to administer antibiotics to 15-year-old cancer patient Rebecca Zammit Lupi to bring down her fever to enable her to resume chemotherapy, in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta October 10, 2020. "Honestly i thought I?d have my life back by now. I thought I?d be able to follow online school from home like any other normal student who?s not going to school. Instead I?ve been too unwell to even follow any.. I thought I was done with chemo and radiotherapy for good. But here i am reliving what I?ve gone through throughout this past year," wrote Rebecca in a Facebook post. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, plays a game on her iPad tablet in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta November 23, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, holds her teddy bear Snuggles as she sleeps in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta November 21, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Marisa Ford comforts her daughter Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, as physiotherapist Jonathan Dimech massages Rebecca's foot in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta October 19, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Nurse Pauline Falzon prepares an intravenous antibiotics infusion for Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, as Rebecca takes part in an online computer studies lesson in her room at Rainbow Ward in Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, June 1, 2020. Rebecca's pleas for online education for ill children to continue post COVID-19 caught the attention of the national media and the authorities. "Once online school became real, I actually found studying fun! I hadn't studied in months because I never felt up to just reading the notes my friends had given me. I feel that joining some of the lessons, after being out of school for so long, made my teachers, friends and myself very happy!" said Rebecca at the time. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, bids farewell to her mother Marisa Ford in her room at Rainbow Ward in Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, April 25, 2020. After seven weeks of lockdown in the ward because of the coronavirus, Marisa was able to go home for a couple of weeks' break, after her husband Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi was allowed to take over from her. "When my dad came to stay with me in hospital, it was one of the best days throughout the lockdown in hospital. I was so excited to watch many movies and the TV show Friends, which we had started before lockdown," said Rebecca at the time. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, reads a card sent to her by local artist Marisa Attard, showing Rebecca as a superhero, in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, October 4, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Doctor Silvana Zammit takes a swab sample from Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 14-year-old cancer patient, after Rebecca displayed some symptoms of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in her room at Rainbow Ward in Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital, during the COVID-19 outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, May 5, 2020. The test result was negative. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Hospital operating theatre staff hold newly-born Rebecca Zammit Lupi at Saint James Capua Hospital in Sliema, Malta, August 3, 2005. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Marisa Ford kisses her daughter Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, as she lies in a coma in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta December 30, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Marisa Ford tries to look through a one-way glass window into her daughter Rebecca Zammit Lupi's room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta December 5, 2020. She was at the hospital for an urgent meeting with doctors about the condition and latest prognosis of her 15-year-old daughter, a cancer patient, but was not allowed to visit her due to COVID-19 restrictions. The meeting brought up bad news - Rebecca was only expected to live another four to eight weeks. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
The coffin of 15-year-old Rebecca Zammit Lupi, who died of cancer two weeks earlier, is seen before her cremation committal service, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at Charlton Park Crematorium in Andover, Britain January 19, 2021. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, two-years-old, sits in her parents' bedroom at home in Msida, Malta, November 16, 2007. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi lies down next to his 15-year-old daughter Rebecca, a cancer patient, as she lies in a coma in her room at Rainbow Ward in Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre at Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta, January 1, 2021. Marisa Ford/via REUTERS
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, 12, performs in the College of Dance production "Three" in Valletta, Malta, July 4, 2018. Rebecca was a very keen and accomplished dancer, studying ballet, hip-hop and modern jazz dance, before falling ill with cancer. After she passed away, several of her dancer teachers created choreographies dedicated to her. One of her teachers, Warren Bonello, wrote in a social media post - "She has proven herself to be a warrior, time after time, brave and strong, but life decided that you'd be better off there in God's garden. I might have just been one of your dance teachers but you kids become my children and a joy to my life!! This hurts beyond belief but I keep telling myself that you are in a better place." REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Marisa Ford cries over her daughter Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, shortly after she passed away in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta January 3, 2021. "Your cancer was horrific. It broke your body and my heart ... you are the most beautiful cancer patient who endured it all without complaints. You just strived to get better when I knew deep down that medically you didn't stand a chance ... you are unique Rebecca Zammit Lupi what an honour to be your mum I watched you try to cope in awe...your cancer is gone but it took you with it ..." Ford wrote on Facebook later that day. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, lies in a coma in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta December 28, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, and her mother Marisa Ford watch a personal video message for Rebecca from U.S. actor David Schwimmer in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta December 8, 2020. Rebecca was a huge fan of the TV sitcom Friends and she and her father binge-watched all ten seasons of the show for a second time while in hospital. Schwimmer later said, "I know how much the show meant to her, and I feel so honored to have brought her any additional moments of joy or distraction those last weeks." REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, reacts after swallowing some medicine in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta November 7, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Reuters photographer Darrin Zammit Lupi and his 15-year-old daughter Rebecca, a cancer patient, pose for a selfie photo in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta October 10, 2020. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a 15-year-old cancer patient, reaches out for a ball held by physiotherapist Jonathan Dimech, in her room in Rainbow Ward at Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tal-Qroqq, Malta November 3, 2020. "I always admired Rebecca?s will and determination to keep going. She was such a gentle soul and a total sweetheart. She touched us all with her bravery and tenacity to fight. Even when she was in pain, she still wanted to carry out her exercises, partly because they reminded her of dancing which she loved so much," said Dimech. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
15-year-old Rebecca Zammit Lupi, a cancer patient, celebrates her birthday with her friends Luisa Zammit and Elea Broger, following almost five months of lockdown during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak whilst she received treatment for cancer in the Sir Anthony Mamo Oncology Centre in Mater Dei Hospital, at home in Kappara, Malta, August 3, 2020. "My 15th birthday was obviously quite a different experience for me since I couldn't see many friends or interact with them as I normally would and also had to spend most of the day in an N95 mask. However, I got to see some of my best friends whom I hadn't seen in months which felt great!" said Rebecca. REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi
The first photo I ever took of my daughter, and the last