{"id":169,"date":"2017-05-31T21:28:51","date_gmt":"2017-05-31T21:28:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/?p=169"},"modified":"2017-06-23T16:09:46","modified_gmt":"2017-06-23T16:09:46","slug":"amandhas-promise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/amandhas-promise\/","title":{"rendered":"amandha’s promise"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cEva and I used to lay side by side, getting chemo together. We talked about going to university together and changing the world some day and now she was dying. I promised her: \u2018I will keep fighting for you Eva. I don\u2019t know how I will do it, but I will.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Amandha Richter<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Eva passed away in December, 2001 at the age of 15. She wasn\u2019t the only friend Amandha would lose to cancer, but she was the friend who would forever change the course of her life.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A keepsake from Amandha’s scrapbook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amandha recalls the first time meeting Eva. They were both at the hospital, waiting to receive treatment. Amandha had just been diagnosed with Hodgkin\u2019s lymphoma and Eva was battling a brain tumour.<\/p>\n

Eva kept looking at Amandha and Amandha kept trying to avert her eyes. Amandha was 17 and angry, struggling to make sense of the disparate worlds of cancer and life as a teenager. Finally, with great difficulty, Eva got up, walked over and stood directly in front of Amandha. When Eva asked Amandha how she was, Amandha finally asked her how she was.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I can walk today, so today is a good day,\u201d Eva replied and they immediately became great friends.<\/p>\n

After losing Eva, Amandha was left to battle her own cancer-related demons.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister Whitney used to say I went from being 17 to 40 overnight. My physical person was completely the same, but inside \u2014 emotionally \u2014 I was different. I no longer shared common ground with my school friends, so I lost a lot of friends that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Amandha was already cancer-weary, having lost her best friend Loni to cancer years before, when she 10 and Loni was 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d only known people who had died from cancer,\u201d Amandha says. \u201cWhen I was diagnosed, I thought: \u2018I\u2019m 17 and I\u2019m going to die. I\u2019m not going to graduate and go to university. I\u2019m not going to get married and have kids. I\u2019m going to die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amandha survived cancer, but not unscathed. As with many childhood cancer survivors, she struggled with depression for years after treatment. Amandha was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, periodically seeing a therapist to manage her PTSD.<\/p>\n

a fundraising legacy<\/h1>\n

In\u00a0the aftermath of cancer, Amandha started making good on her promise to Eva. Little did she know that she and fellow cancer survivors Taryn Penrice and Jeff McNabb would start a legacy of fundraising for pediatric cancer research in central Alberta.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Amandha speaks to media during her head shave in 2001<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After organizing a shave event in 2001 and raising more than $75,000 for Kids Cancer Care, Amandha joined forces with her friends Taryn and Jeff to organize the first Golf a Kid to Cure tournament in Red Deer.<\/p>\n

Jeff\u2019s family later went on to organize the Build a Kid to Cure initiative, where trades and individuals from the housing industry donate time and resources to build a home. Proceeds from the sale of the home go to Kids Cancer Care and other local charities.<\/p>\n

Sadly, Jeff passed away in 2011 and his parents Dave and Brigitte McNabb kept the legacy alive by annually hosting the Build\/Golf a Kid to Cure events in his memory. With the support of the employees at Dominion Lending Centres Regional Mortgage Group and the Red Deer community, the McNabbs have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for childhood cancer research.<\/p>\n

saving lives<\/strong><\/h1>\n

But when Amandha promised to keep fighting for Eva in 2001, she had more than fundraising in mind. She had plans to become a pediatric oncology nurse.<\/p>\n

When Kids Cancer Care introduced the Derek Wandzura Memorial Scholarship Fund<\/a> in 2008, Amandha was among the first 26 cancer survivors in Alberta to receive a scholarship. With the help of that scholarship, Amandha pursued a Bachelor of Science in Nursing through a joint degree program at Red Deer College and the University of Alberta.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so grateful to receive that scholarship,\u201d says Amandha. \u201cIt gave me the opportunity to focus on my studies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amandha is now using her nursing career to continue paying it forward, working as a critical care nurse in the Emergency Department at the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be tough, working as an emergency nurse,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re with people on the worst day of their life. We are part of that really bad day. You save their life and they go away and you never see them again. It\u2019s so intense and immediate. Afterwards, you can say, \u2018I did that for them. I helped save their life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Amandha remembers her first emergency ward experience: \u201cI was doing my final preceptorship in Atlanta and I was terrified. One of the nurses said to me, \u2018Don\u2019t worry; you won\u2019t be doing chest compressions on your first day.\u2019 I did chest compressions on two patients that day and they both lived,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI must be an adrenaline junky or something. It was such a high to know that I had helped save them.\u201d<\/p>\n

More than the adrenaline-high, Amandha loves the fact that she can give her entire being to her patients: \u201cI can give all of myself to nursing. I can use my brains, my hands and my heart. I use all of these parts of myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

A big part of Amandha also loves the diversity of the role \u2014 from newborns to seniors, and everyone in between. Each patient presents with a different disease or medical issue, from hang nails to heart attacks. Amandha is constantly learning and the breadth of her knowledge is ever expanding.<\/p>\n

\"\"
With the help of a Kids Cancer Care Derek Wandzura Memorial Scholarship, Amandha studied nursing and now works as a critical care nurse at the Foothills Medical Centre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But there is one area of nursing that Amandha is currently unable to go \u2014 pediatric oncology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried, but I can\u2019t do it,\u201d she says. \u201cI used to see that as a failure, but I don\u2019t anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working with a therapist over the past few years, Amandha has learned to manage her PTSD by identifying triggers and dealing with them early on, so they don\u2019t escalate. Helping children on a pediatric cancer unit is one of those triggers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if cancer follows us or if, as former patients, we follow cancer, but it is always there,\u201d says Amandha. \u201cFrom diagnosis to my dying day, it will forever be part of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Amandha continues to fight for young people like Eva by raising awareness through public speaking engagements at two Red Deer high schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t save Eva\u2019s physical being,\u201d Amandha says, \u201cbut I can keep her with me spiritually. I carry her with me. Who knows how Eva would have lived or fulfilled her potential. I\u2019m helping in my way. I think that\u2019s how we honour the people who are no longer with us. We live for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a teen, Amandha could not save Eva\u2019s life. Nor could she save Loni\u2019s life. But as a critical care nurse, Amandha saves lives every day. We never know exactly how our dreams and promises will manifest. They can\u00a0manifest in unexpected ways. Amandha\u2019s dreams and promises led her to a career in nursing at\u00a0the Foothills Emergency Department, where every day she\u00a0enacts the one thing she was unable to do as a kid \u2013 save lives.<\/p>\n

Thanks to your generous support childhood cancer survivors like Amandha <\/strong>are fulfilling long-held promises and dreams to help others.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dreams realized by YOU.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEva and I used to lay side by side, getting chemo together. We talked about going to university together and changing the world some day and now she was dying. I promised her: \u2018I will keep fighting for you Eva. I don\u2019t know how I will do it, but I will.\u2019\u201d \u2013 Amandha Richter Eva […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scholarships"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidscancercare.ab.ca\/annual-report-2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}