2007 Relay for Life

Mother of cancer victim, Ervilene Kuhlmann says, "Its something that you never dream it would happen to you." And in October 2005 it did happen to the Kuhlmann family. Trinity Lutheran 3rd grader, friend, sister and daughter, Kathryn Kuhlmann was diagnosed with cancer. "Kathryn did ask once, ‘Why did leukemia have to happen to me?’” Ervilene says. “I thought when I turned 8 that was to be the best year of my life." Instead it was a year that changed Kathryn’s life. Stephen Kuhlmann, father of Kathryn recalls, "Kathryn had all or acute lymphoblast leukemia but we also found that she had a rare genetic component that was called near-haploid, which instead it responds well to chemotherapy but it has a high tendency for relapse." After a nine month battle with a rare case that only one in ten children in the whole country are diagnosed with every year, 8-year old Kathryn passed away on July 5th 2006. In an effort to raise money to find a cure for this disease, Relay for Life of San Angelo will take place this weekend, in memory of this young hero. "I’m kind of honored that its in her memory and also sad that she touched some lives and in the short time that she was here and hard to put into words, what it means to me,” Stephen says. Her parents feel that a very special angel will be watching over the track of the Relay for Life. Stephen says, "She’s probably hoping that or wishing that she could be running on that track. Whenever she went with us to previous Relay’s for Life’s, she enjoyed going around the track, running that track. That was just her type of thing she enjoyed, getting out and doing that.”