CB Leukemia victim continues to touch lives

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Story Published: Jun 30, 2008 at 3:41 PM PDT

By Azenith Smith

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COOS BAY - She may have passed away two years ago from Leukemia, but her spirit lives on, as proceeds to help Coos Bay native Amelia Worth will now help others battling the same disease.

On Monday, Amelia's friend Arch Wilkie and mom Patricia Worth, presented a check of little more than $46,000 to the Oregon Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

It was money left over from the community's efforts in 2006 to raise money for a bone marrow transplant for the 2002 Marshfield High School graduate.

From collecting change in cans to a charity dinner at the Mill Casino, in eight months, the community had raised more than $60,000, with $20,000 of that going toward her medical expenses at OHSU.

"She was loved and she was vibrant," says Patricia Worth, Amelia's mom. "She was just a part of life in our community. She did marching band with the school and she did karate. She just made people know who she was."

Amelia, who was a senior at the University of Oregon, died in December 2006 at the age of 22, after fighting the disease for almost three years.

And, to this day, her memory will continue to touch lives.

"It'll go for research and do everything that it was supposed to do," says Arch Wilkie, Amelia's friend. "When I was raising money for the funds, I told everyone that if it was not being used for Amelia, it will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help someone else."

If you'd like to learn more about the local chapter, call (503) 245-9866. In Oregon alone, representatives say, more than 1,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancers and 600 of them die every year.

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