In April, 2001, 12-year-old Renee Mullins was living with her parents and brother in Hoxie, Kansas, a town of 1,200 people, about 240 miles from Wichita. Renee did not pay much attention when she first noticed a small, tender lump on her right hand, but when the lump began to affect her softball game, she told her parents. A local doctor removed what he thought was a benign cyst, but a biopsy and several additional tests confirmed that the lump was actually Synovial Cell Sarcoma, a rare cancer found in only 1 out of 300,000 people. Renee was referred to the University of Kansas Hospital Medical Center in Kansas City for treatment.

Synovial cell sarcoma is a soft-tissue cancer most often found in adolescents and young adults. It commonly occurs in the legs, knees, feet and hands. Treatment usually involves a combination of surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

Between May and November, 2001, Renee had two more surgeries and seven chemotherapy treatments. Renee came through the chemo well; her only serious complication was an infection. Losing her hair was difficult, but she had a lot of support from those around her. "I got to meet a lot of wonderful, caring people at the hospital," she says. "They made me feel loved and more accepting of what I had to go through."

The support Renee received was especially important when she had her surgery. To ensure all of the cancer in her hand was eliminated, her right ring finger had to be removed along with the cancerous tumor. Renee's orthopaedic surgeon, Kimberly Templeton, MD, tried to minimize the cosmetic and functional damage to her hand, while making sure that all of the cancer was gone.

So far, it appears that Dr. Templeton achieved her goals: This spring will be the five-year anniversary of Renee's cancer diagnosis, with no signs of a recurrence. Renee has full use of her right hand. She has minimal scarring and is able to write, type 80 words per minute and play softball. Renee also works part-time three or four nights a week as a waitress at her parent's restaurant in Hoxie. Aside from finding it slightly easier to balance trays on her left hand, she has noticed few differences between the functioning of her left and right hands.

Renee hasn't totally been able to put cancer out of her mind, but has refused to let it spoil her high school experience. She enjoys trying new things and "...lives everyday to the fullest capacity. I don't argue about the little things, or stress about the things that aren't worth that much energy," she says. Renee is now in her junior year and has begun to think about her plans after graduation. Although she's not 100 percent sure at this point, she knows she wants to go to college and is seriously considering a career in pediatric nursing, which would allow her to help other kids with cancer.

Renee believes that research funding is crucial in helping doctors to improve treatment of rare diseases like hers. She put her beliefs into action last year when she participated in the Relay for Life, a 12-hour all-night marathon walk to benefit cancer research. Renee raised $2,000 herself and was proud that her county, Sheridan County, raised more than $20,000. If a small county in Kansas can do that much, there is no limit to what can be achieved with increased funding at the national level.