Aug 5, 2009 11:02 pm US/Eastern
In Your Community: Amanda's Cancer Fight
Neighbors 4 Neighbors: 305-597-4404
Fundraiser Is Set For Thursday, August 6th
Blake: "I'm kind of a proud person; I don't like to ask for help a lot, but I do need it."
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
A South Florida teenager is showing an entire community how to be strong. Amanda Blake, 15, is battling a kind of cancer that has taken a toll on her family, emotionally and financially.
Amanda is glad to be the only girl in her family. "There is a lot less rules than when you're 11, but you don't have as much responsibility as you do at 18. It's like the perfect age," she told
CBS4's Jorge Estevez at Miami Children's Hospital, where she was receiving a check-up.
She has had to grow up fast, battling cancer that was detected after she complained about a simple knee pain last year.
"We asked her to look at it, and from there she asked us to go get an X-ray, and from the X-ray we went to get an MRI, and from MRI we went to the biopsy," said Amanda.
Doctors diagnosed her with osteosarcoma, a kind of bone cancer. Chemotherapy lead to surgery and just this week the tumor has spread.
"Things just keep adding on, when you think you are almost there, something else happens," said Blake.
Thank goodness, the teen has her father and her two brothers to look for support.
"Everything that is happening with me is happening to him," said Blake about her dad. "It's the same feelings, but he is tough about it."
Her dad, David Blake, is a single parent and had to leave his job and join his two sons, who are all helping Amanda.
"It's hard, a lot harder being a single parent," said David Blake.
But the family has found help from Sandra Muvdi, who started the Jessica June Children's Cancer Foundation, named after her daughter who lost her battle with cancer.
"That is about the worst thing a parent can be told, that your child has been diagnosed with cancer," said Muvdi.
And although her work with Amanda is partly funded by the Wasie Foundation, it is not enough to support the Blake family who needs to concentrate on Amanda.
"I'm kind of a proud person; I don't like to ask for help a lot, but I do need it," said Blake.
If you would like to help the Blake family, go to
Neighbors4Neighbors.org or call (
305) 597 4404.
You can also attend
Thursday's Fundraiser at Las Olas Grand.
Neighbors for Neighbors is hoping to lead by example. They have donated a couple hundred dollars in gift certificates for the family to buy food.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
2009 Dolphins Cheerleader Calendar Shoot
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
