Last photo of frail Swayze published in book and online

Lisa Niemi took the picture of the bald, almost skeletal Swayze in the days before he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2009 but had no plans to do anything with it.

However, as she wrote her new memoir, Worth Fighting For: Love, Loss & Moving Forward, she kept coming back to the last photo of a sick Swayze and she decided it should be published.

On Tuesday (03Jan12), she posted it online and she is still not sure she did the right thing.

She tells news show Entertainment Tonight, “Being sick wasn’t always the most dignified-looking thing and Patrick was a man with a lot of pride.”

But she insists, “It was the truth.”