Star of Disney’s Queen of Katwe Nikita Pearl Waligwa has died aged 15 after being diagnosed with a brain tumor.
Nikita Pearl played Gloria in the film – also starring Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o – about a chess prodigy from a Ugandan slum.
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Doctors first discovered a tumor in 2016 and, after radiotherapy, she was told she was cancer-free a year later.
Shortly after the youngster’s initial diagnosis, her mother Rachel Asiimwe Waligwa was diagnosed with cancer and given just two months to live.
But she survived against all odds and dubbed her recovery a ‘miracle’.
Her family told of their heartbreak when Nikita Pearl later developed another tumor.
She died at a hospital in Naalya, Kampala, last night, in Uganda.
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After her initial diagnosis, the film’s director Mira Nair asked the public to help cover the cost of her treatment in India.
Gayaza High School, where Nikita Pearl was a student paid tributes to their colleague writing ‘Fare thee well Nikita Pearl Waligwa.’
