Emily Beazley Loses Public Battle With Cancer

Her final couple of days were spent paralyzed from the waist down but without pain, her mother said

Emily Beazley, the 12-year-old Chicago girl who made headlines as she waged a public battle with cancer, receiving support from residents and celebrities including Taylor Swift, passed away Monday. 

The girl's death was confirmed via a message on social media early Tuesday morning. 

"My beautiful Emily got to use her angel wings. She fought hard to the end. Her last gift to me was passing peacefully," her mother Nadia Beazley wrote in a Facebook post.

Emily died at 11:02 p.m. Monday, her mother said.

Nadia Beazley asked for privacy for the family and said the young girl's services will be private. A public memorial will be scheduled for a later time, she wrote.

Emily's final couple of days were spent paralyzed from the waist down but without pain, her mother said. 

"It hurts so much to imagine that I will never have another hug or kiss from my girl," Nadia Beazley wrote on Facebook late Sunday. "Or hear her say 'mommy' the special way that she does. This hurts so damn bad."

The lack of mobility was a drastic change from just a weekend earlier, when Beazley threw the ceremonial first pitch at a Chicago White Sox game against the Cincinnati Reds.

Emily for years has been battling a type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma that's so aggressive doctors last month told the family there was nothing more they could do. Treatment was stopped.

Two weeks ago, Emily was granted one of her final big wishes: to talk to her favorite singer Taylor Swift. After supporters made countless attempts to get Swift's attention on social media, the Grammy Award-winning superstar made a call to Beazley, the girl's mother confirmed to NBC Chicago.

"The smile on my daughter [is one] I have not seen in a very, very long time," Nadia Beazley said. "I could cry."

She said Swift's manager also offered the family tickets and a chance to meet the singer at her Detroit concert May 30.

Beazley supporters have also decorated the family’s neighborhood with purple and green colors and a Chicago block was named in her honor.

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