Honoring Amy at Relay For Life 2009

Last night was Iowa State University’s Relay For Life. Amy’s story was read and a slide show of her was displayed. For those who couldn’t be there, here is what was said:

Amy Kapler came to ISU in the fall of 2006. Though she grew up in Fort Dodge, she attended high school in Minnesota. She opted to return to the state of Iowa to be a Cyclone, as were her father and brother. Amy led the life of the typical freshman: staying busy with schoolwork, enjoying the dorm life, and trying to figure out what she wanted to do with her life – she chose English education. She would later call her freshman year at Iowa State the best year of her life.

Throughout that year, she began to have increasingly frequent bouts of nausea. She was misdiagnosed several times until the summer of 2007, when a doctor who had run out of ideas did an ultrasound of her abdomen and found a six-inch diameter mass on her liver. A biopsy showed it to be malignant – Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma. It is a rare strain of cancer that only affects young adults at a rate of approximately 200 cases per year, worldwide. There is no genetic predisposition to Fibrolamellar – Amy was an unfortunate random victim. It was unfortunate that doctors hadn’t caught it sooner, but no one suspects a nineteen year old girl to have liver cancer.

Doctors were optimistic that they could remove the tumor, which they did in July 2007, along with one-third of her liver. Unfortunately, they found that the cancer had already spread throughout her abdomen.

Chemotherapy was the plan of action, and this presented its own problems. Amy’s type of cancer is so rare that little research exists on it and no clinical trials are performed on its behalf. The doctors who worked with Amy pioneered a treatment. Since rare cancers are underrepresented in the medical community, treatment of them is hit-and-miss, at best. The chemotherapy drugs given to Amy had no proven track record. Of the different drugs she tried, only one seemed to slow tumor growth, and only for a short time.

Amy’s life turned into rest at home, pain management, trips to hospitals, and struggling to maintain her weight. There was the occasional escape – through the generous support of friends and family she was able to do some traveling. She went to Florida with her mom to spend some time on the beach, and also got to spend time on an island off the coast of Georgia with her family. Aside from that, life consisted mainly of home and hospital.

Last year, Amy ventured away from the Twin Cities and came down to Ames to take part in Relay For Life. Events like this are needed to honor survivors, to remember those who cancer has taken, and to lift the spirits of all who have been either directly or indirectly affected by this disease. After Relay For Life last year, Amy said that “it was great to feel like a normal person again for a night.” She was able to hang out with her friends. Though at home she had to sleep frequently, here she stayed awake and active until after midnight. At home she rarely had the energy to walk even short distances; here, she walked around the track more than ten times. And while at home she took a regimen of pain pills, here she got by with almost none – and was all smiles. For one night Amy got to put aside her illness and the Kapler family is forever grateful for it.

Amy was excited to be a part of last year’s Relay. She was an advocate for fellow cancer sufferers. When she wasn’t wearing cyclone gear or her shirt that in big purple letters stated “CANCER SUCKS,” she proudly wore her Relay For Life shirts, practically wearing them out.

She had a lot of reasons to be cynical… but never was. She was cheery when everyone else was sad. Her positive outlook lifted everyone else’s spirits. She was polite when she needn’t be. And typical of Amy, she made everyone smile when it seemed as if there was nothing to smile about.

After a bleak couple of weeks, Amy died in her home on September 13^th, 2008, after a year-and-a-half battle with the disease. She was wearing a “BEAT IOWA” shirt. The Iowa – Iowa State football game was later that day. The Cyclones lost that game, and the world lost Amy Kapler.

Amy suffered greatly during the last year of her life, but Amy’s family thinks that she wouldn’t have wanted us to dwell on that fact. Amy is remembered by her friends, family, doctors, and nurses as an upbeat girl with a positive attitude, contagious smile, and an unforgettable sense of humor. She was described posthumously on Facebook as “always smiling,” “one of the funniest people I know,” “everybody’s friend,” and “bright and lovely.” She inspired everyone – from her doctors to people whom she had never met.

Amy was a fighter. She outlived every prognosis given to her. Everyone who knows her feels lucky to have had as much time with her as they did.

If there is one thing made blatantly obvious by Amy’s struggle with cancer, it is that cancer is an ugly disease from which no one is safe. Events like this one are needed to bring light to cancer and the issues surrounding it. In a time where our Nation’s financial situation has put a considerable amount of pressure on Washington to cut federal science funding, the money raised in events like this is crucial. On behalf of Amy, the Kapler family would like to thank all of you for your participation.

Amy would have been about to finish her junior year.

She was so beautiful, so funny, so happy, so brave, so loved, and is so missed.

To read more about Amy’s fight, Google “Amy Kapler.”