Amanda's Battle

Amanda was such a ray of sunshine. She was so much fun to be around and brought much love, life and laughter into our home. She had the most beautiful contagious smile and a vibrant outgoing personality. She was kind and loving and extremely generous. She was a fiercely competitive athlete with a passion for running and a tremendous love for the game of basketball. She led by example, strived to be the best and always gave 100% to everything she did. She was a planner with dreams of attending UGA and then becoming a teacher. She had great faith and trusted that God would take care of her. She was strong willed and by far the toughest person we knew. She was our 17 year old daughter, and cancer took her from us.

Our world stopped turning in March 2009 when Amanda was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 16. Upon diagnosis, we found out that she had stage IV cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma. She had a tumor in the bladder and it had metastasized to the lungs and bones.

She endured 14 rounds of chemo, 30 rounds of radiation and numerous blood transfusions. She was declared CANCER FREE in January of 2010 but only 3 weeks later, the cancer returned. She had a tumor in her neck and it was intertwined in her spinal cord. She had surgery to remove the tumor and endured an additional 25 rounds of radiation on her neck. Amanda never fully recovered from the relapse. The cancer continued to spread to her entire spinal cord and coated her brain. She entered the hospital for the last time on March 27th and went home to live with Jesus on April 9th.

During Amanda's 405 day battle with cancer, she still attended school and church every chance she got and somehow managed to keep smiling that beautiful smile. Amanda was a fighter if there ever was one. She always gave 100% to everything she did and fighting cancer was no exception. She suffered immensely but always kept the faith and fought the good fight but was not able to beat cancer.

That is why today, we fight the fight for her!

When we lost our 17-year-old daughter Amanda to cancer, our world stopped turning.  The experience was devastating and it changed our lives forever. There is a hole in our hearts that will never be filled. We will never forget Amanda, her beautiful smile or the love and compassion she showed for all people. Her life may have been short but her spirit lives on and inspires us to help others. It hurts terribly to hear of one more child that must face this dreadful disease, one more family whose life will be turned upside down.

After Amanda passed away, we wanted and needed to do something to keep her memory alive. It just didn't seem fair that someone that once was so full of life was now gone. We wanted the world to know that we would never forget her and that we would never forget all the other children that have or will be diagnosed with this horrible disease. Most importantly, we wanted to show that we are here to support all the children that are still fighting for their lives against childhood cancer. There is no cure for cancer but we had to do something to make their lives better while going thru treatments.  

We have very vivid memories forever etched in our mind of the beautiful children that we saw on a daily basis at the clinic and hospital and how badly we wanted to reach out to them and help them. At the time, obviously we had our hands full taking care of Amanda.  Now with nothing but time on our hands, we can help those children. To try and make a difference, to keep Amanda's SMILE alive on their faces.  We decided to focus on TODAY and the struggles the children face TODAY and try to make TODAY better for them.  That is why our focus is on SMILES; we want to try to do something TODAY, to bring a smile to a child's face. To be their little ray of sunshine as Amanda was for us.  Yes they are struggling and are in pain but maybe we can do something to take their mind off of having cancer, if even for a moment, to give them something that they will enjoy playing with or listening to or watching. Yes, that was the answer, to do the small things to bring a smile to a child's face. TODAY - while they are in the midst of their battle, during their toughest times!

Steve & Barbara Riley, Brittany Riley Duncan