Former PN candidate and a well-loved doctor Mario Rizzo Naudi has passed away, the Nationalist Party leader Bernard Grech announced Saturday.

“I am saddened,” Grech wrote on Facebook, “by the loss of dear Mario, a genuine man and a friend who gave his all in his profession as a doctor, in politics and each time he contributed in the media”.

Grech said that the last time he had spoken to Rizzo Naudi was at the PN’s fund-raising marathon two weeks ago. “I’m here to give my contribution,” Rizzo Naudi had told him.

Grech said that he always admired Rizzo Naudi’s altruism, saying that in his difficult moments he had sought to encourage others.