kirsten sandstrom endured a 21-month battle with adrenocortical carcinoma [acc], a rare and aggressive cancer of the adrenal glands. kirsten was only 37 when she passed away on march 25th, 2010, leaving behind a husband and three young boys. kirsten was such a kind, caring, incredible woman, whose beauty radiated through and through -- no matter how much pain she was in. a few months ago, i was contacted by translational genomics research institute [tgen] about possibly using some photos of kirsten, in an upcoming issue of tgen today. i had already known that her family approved because they were the ones that referred tgen to me. and there was no question on my part. i immediately went through all of kirsten's images and shared every photo that i thought might possibly work for the article. i knew tgen was happy with the photographs but i didn't know which image[s] they had selected for kirsten's article.

a few days ago, i received tgen today in the mail.

the article -- the power of one: pasquinelli-sandstrom family establishes kirsten's legacy to focus on ACC resarch -- is so beautifully written. they included bailey's (one of kirsten's three sons) school essay:

I asked in a cautious voice, 'What's wrong, Dad?' He told us to sit down with him and said, 'Mom is really sick, and the doctors say she has cancer.' My heart skipped a beat. I was still wondering if he said this right. Could that even be possible? When I looked around the room, everything was fuzzy and I could not see anything. It was then that I hear my innocent little brother, Jake, ask, 'What's cancer?' At that moment, I knew he would feel unimaginable pain far worse than Holden, [Bailey's twin] and I were currently feeling. I knew that we all wanted to hug our mom and never let go.

and the closing paragraph quotes kirsten's dad...

What we hope to do at TGen through Kirsten's Legacy is this: She doesn't have to be physically alive for her faith and courage to be contagious, to give others hope. By funding this research, her faith and courage lie on through the successes I know TGen will achieve. And in turn, those successes will give others with ACC a chance.

the entire article can be read here.