Just last week, I got this amazing card from a girl I took care of when she was 3, when I was an oncology fellow. It was a graduation announcement.

Her mother listed all of the colleges she had gotten into. And I pictured this little girl who almost died in the intensive care unit.

People always start out their letters with: “I hope you will remember us.” Well, I remember every single person I took care of, because every person leaves a little mark.

This bracelet I’m wearing is from a patient I consider my inspiration right now. She’s 16, the same age as one of my daughters.

Her name is Regan Arnold, and she was a high school track runner. She came here in excruciating pain. We diagnosed her with something called lymphangiosarcoma, which is unheard of in kids. It’s a lymphatic blood vessel cancer, and it destroys. It’s in her bones, and it’s near her spine. It’s extremely painful.

The amazing thing about Regan is her attitude. She has been here for six months. Her tumor came back, and yet she is so upbeat. She just makes me happy every time I’m with her.

She makes these little bracelets. She takes orders for them from all the nurses and doctors, and she makes them for the other children in the ward. When she’s feeling well, that’s what she’s doing: trying to make other people happy.

Her will, her fight, is just commendable. She’s an example for all of us, really. I can’t help but be inspired by that.

As a pediatric oncologist at Cincinnati Children’s, Dr. Denise Adams, specializes in treating kids with rare vascular tumors. She is the mother of four. Her kids are competitive swimmers, including her youngest, 12-year-old Emma, who has Down syndrome and competes in Special Olympics. Dr. Adams likes to take her kids to practice before dawn and swim herself before her hospital shift. Her husband, Chris, is director of a nonprofit school for children and adults with special needs. They make a point to eat dinner together every night as a family, even if it’s at 8:30 p.m.