College of Kentucky dance staff member Kate Kaufling has died. She was 20.
The college introduced the unhappy information on April 1 in an announcement posted on their web site. Kaufling, who was a sophomore on the college, died on March 31, after a battle with osteosarcoma, a type of bone most cancers.
Kaufling, a nursing scholar, and her twin sister, Abbey, joined the dance staff in fall 2023.
“Kate was a pleasure to educate and to be round. Her smile might gentle up a room and she or he was beloved by all of her UKDT teammates,” mentioned UK dance staff head coach Daybreak Walters. “We’re all saddened by Kate’s passing. We are going to bear in mind her for the robust battle she fought with osteosarcoma over the previous yr. She was courageous till the very finish and all of us can draw inspiration from the brave battle that she fought. Our ideas, prayers and love are with the Kaufling household.”
Moreover, UK’s govt affiliate athletics director Sandy Bell mentioned that along with being a gifted dancer, Kaufling “was additionally a tremendous scholar, within the Faculty of Nursing, who took her lecturers very significantly.”
Bell famous that the younger scholar was beloved by all who knew “and she or he might be deeply missed.”
Osteosarcoma can start within the bones, typically discovered within the legs and generally arms, in keeping with Mayo Clinic. The bone most cancers most frequently occurs in youngsters and younger adults. Signs embody bone or joint ache that may be mistaken for rising pains, swelling close to a bone or ache associated to a bone that breaks for no clear cause.
It seems Kaufling hardly ever shared updates on her well being and therapy on her social media. Nonetheless, on Jan. 6, she posted about ending her chemotherapy therapy.
She shared a video of herself ringing the bell on the hospital, marking the “finish of chemo.”
“I felt it was an excellent time to put up. Being the perfectionist I’m, I refused to put up about this earlier than. For it might present my true weaknesses which I hate to let folks see,” she wrote, including that “2023 was by far not the yr I had in thoughts.”
“My plans of returning to UK with my greatest pals to bounce and begin nursing faculty had made a pointy surprising flip. I had no selection however as a substitute to spend the previous 7 months present process an intense chemotherapy therapy stuffed with many hospital stays,” she continued, writing that seven months later she was proud to say “it’s over.”
She wrote that most cancers is a curse she needs on no human being, however that it modified her outlook on life.
“Maintain on to your family members so long as you’ll be able to. These hugs could be the one factor making them really feel protected proper now. Embrace your pals who deal with you no in another way since you’re ailing,” she wrote. “Thank God on a regular basis for all the things round you. At present I’m proud to share I’m formally completed with chemotherapy and prepared for a greater chapter of my life to start.”
She concluded her caption with a quote: “Yesterday is historical past. Tomorrow is a thriller, however as we speak is a present. That’s why it’s referred to as the current.”
Kaufling is survived by her mother and father Holly and Steve Kaufling and her twin sister, Abbey.
This text was initially revealed on TODAY.com