A PHOTOGRAPHER unwittingly captured a poignant moment in the life of a late Worcester mother as she was reunited with the Indian orphan she 'adopted' as a child.

The photograph shows the late Rita Zacchi on her mobility scooter in Worcester High Street which she had used since suffering a stroke in 2001.

With her are Titus Zacchi, who took her surname, his wife Bindu and their two sons who had flown out to see her for ten days.

It was one of the photographs that caught the eye of comedian and actor Russell Brand when he saw it at an exhibition in London, singling it out for praise.

But it had an even more profound effect on Mrs Zacchi’s daughter, Louise Rumford.

She spotted the photograph by Miles Pilling, known as the 'Scooter Shooter', on the Worcester News website on March 6, just three days after her mother's death at the age of 85.

Mr Pilling, aged 48, is a former BBC cameraman, journalist and director, who developed a variant of incurable motor neurone disease in 2013, which forced him to give up the job he loved.

The photograph, taken in August 2015, shows the first time Titus had been to Worcester with his family.

Mrs Rumford said she felt the image had allowed her mother to 'live on just a little bit longer'.

Mrs Zacchi ‘adopted’ Titus from an orphanage and school in Bangalore some twenty years before, paying for his education.

He is now a successful businessman involved with electronics.

Mr Pilling, who has been moved by the reaction to the photographs, said the photo of Mrs Zacchi was one of his favourites from the last two to three years.

He will present Mrs Rumford with a framed copy of the photograph once the exhibition at the Worcester Arts Workshop in Sansome Street closes on April 5 and intends to send a copy of the photo electronically to Titus and his family in India.

Mrs Rumford, proprietor of the antique shop Heirlooms in Worcester and a former Worcester News reporter, said seeing the photo had a special impact upon her and made her feel mixed emotions, joy but also sadness she was not there to see it for herself.

Mrs Rumford of Ombersley Road, Worcester, believes the photograph showed something of her mother's sternness and determination but that she also had a sense of humour.

“Rightly concentrating on not moving anyone down on her scooter, mum was obviously unaware of the eye of the camera. Had she been, she would have smiled her sunny smile and probably shown a shapely leg or two.”

Titus so appreciated the help given to him by Mrs Zacchi that he went on to sponsor the education of three other orphans.

Mrs Zacchi's kindness to him was in turn inspired by an act of kindness which she was determined to repay.

Mrs Rumford said: "When Titus was visiting mum just before she died, his wife Bindu phoned to say that their elder son Amith had just been awarded a scholarship to a prestigious school in Bangalore - you could see mum smiling through the pain that racked her body."

Mrs Zacchi had fallen in love with an Italian prisoner of war when he was working on land in Ombersley. She followed him back to Italy at the end of the war at the age of 16 and the couple was married.

There she was supported by an American woman, an Italian countess who became her godmother, and it was this act of kindness she wished to return.

With little education herself and coming from a poor family, Mrs Zacchi understood the importance of learning.

Mrs Zacchi had returned to India with her friend Lorraine Paige, a former welfare office and hospice nurse, over the years.

Together they raised money to build help centres for the poorest of the poor with a special emphasis on those suffering from cancer.

Mrs Zacchi's charity work in India ended in 2011 with the death of her friend from cancer.

Mrs Zacchi's funeral takes place on Monday at St George's Roman Catholic Church and is for family and close friends only.