There will be no funeral for a much-loved Rabat doctor who succumbed to cancer earlier this week.

Dr Tania van Avendonk has continued to demonstrate her strong sense of altruism by having made arrangements for her body to be donated to the University of Malta for research and training of future doctors, her husband Frans has said.

A memorial Mass will be held at St Dominic's Church, Rabat, on Saturday, February 10, at 1pm. Mourners have been asked to dress in purple and a collection will be made to support Hospice Malta that supported Dr van Avendonk in the last three years.

Dr van Avendonk died, aged 52, after battling pancreatic cancer for more than two-and-a-half years, prompting an outpouring of grief and condolences on Facebook.  

In an interview with Pink magazine published last year, Dr van Avendonk revealed how she had ignored symptoms for several years before finally getting tested and discovered she had a form of inoperable cancer.

"Please don’t do like me; check symptoms as early as possible," she had said. "Listen to your bodies. Nobody is a super being.”

Read the full Pink magazine interview with Tania van Avendonk here.