Sam Stetzer/ Winonan

Six years ago, Amanda Burggraff received life changing  news as a high school student.

In February of her sophomore year of high school, Burggraff was diagnosed with rare APL leukemia requiring intensive chemotherapy. The cancer, causing blood to clot in her heart, spleen and brain, resulted in Burggraff suffering a small stroke, leaving her unable to speak, type or write even the most familiar words.

“I feel like I’ve stepped over this hurdle so much, and I’m so far passed it. Sometimes it’s such a distant memory,” Burggraff said, “but just like continuing on with it, it will always be a part of my life, and it will always be a part of who I become. It’s nothing I want to forget, by no means.”

At first she lost her spleen and one kidney was bad. Then she had liquid valves on her heart, Burggraff said. The big effect was the clotting in her brain, because it affected the right side of her body.

After her stroke, Burggraff always had the sensation of being cold and was unable to read or think of words to say. Dedication and hard work helped her regain her memory.

It was on a family trip to Florida where Burggraff, a track athlete at the time, first began to feel out of sorts. She had bruises all over and was always fatigued, so she and her family figured it was time to see the physician.

“It was just so unexpected. You would never expect that to occur in your life,” Burggraff said. “When the doctor first said, ‘You could have a bad virus or leukemia,’ my first thought was it was just a bad virus. You just don’t think it’s going to occur.”

Still in shock from the news, Burggraff was quickly checked into the hospital for 52 days of treatment.

For her friends and family, the news was heartbreaking. Kendra and Sarah Durst, long time friends of Burggraff and students at Winona State University, said they just could not imagine someone like her, someone so full of energy and light, going through something like this.

“I remember hearing about her diagnosis an early morning in the month of February,” Sarah said. “My heart hurt for her. We didn’t know any details at the time. We couldn’t see her or communicate with her about much of anything. We just waited.”

Kendra said, “It was heartbreaking first hearing about her leukemia. She was given a pretty low percentage of living right off the bat, so it worried a lot of us. We didn’t give up, just like her.”

She went through treatment with a smile on her face the whole time.

Nine months of treatment later, Burggraff was cancer-free. She had a lifetime worth of lessons behind her and another lifetime in front of her.

Though Burggraff was cancer-free, she had physical therapy to complete to relearn basic English skills. She had to catch up in her classes, also.

Miraculously, she was able to graduate with her class in 2011.

Still cancer-free, Burggraff is a junior at Winona State majoring in marketing, and finally she feels free from her cancer.

“In high school after being diagnosed, you don’t feel like who you used to be, like you can’t do the things you used to do. It was frustrating,” Burggraff said. “When I was getting ready for college and came to Winona for the first time, I was super happy again and felt like I was amongst my class again.”

Today, Burggraff works with multiple cancer awareness societies such as Relay for Life, and she will graduate in 2015, something she feels blessed to be able to do.

Her friends feel blessed too, only because Burggraff lives cancer-free, but also because of the kind of person Burggraff is.

In the end, Burggraff knows her experience happened for a reason.

“A lot of time I look at it like it was just a bump in the road, like life is back to good again, and it was just a small glimpse of my story in life,” Burggraff said.