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17-Year-Old Battles Cancer, Gets A Wish & Pays It Forward

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Aimee Jo Ashford was diagnosed with ovarian cancer earlier this year, and credits her friends in the show choir for getting her through her battle.

So when a wish-granting charity asked the 17-year-old Totino Grace student for her request, her immediate instinct was to give back.

"They said it was a mass on my ovary," Ashford said. "It was about the size of a small Nerf ball."

Doctors booked her for surgery one week after finding it.

"By the time they had taken the mass out, it had got to be like five inches big," she said.

That's when doctors told her she had cancer.

In one month Ashford went from a life of friends, classes and show choir -- to hospital beds, chemo and oncologists.

"To sit in a hospital bed all day was tough," she said.

Then Ashford was chosen as a wish recipient by local wish granting charity Wishes & More.

"They actually said, 'You seem like the perfect person to be our 500th wish,'" she said.

Rather than wish for a trip to her favorite place or a chance to meet her favorite celebrity, she chose to forward her wish.

"I can't possibly thank you enough for everything you did -- you did the smallest things and sometimes it meant the world to me," she said. "I decided for my wish I wanted to give each of you a thank you gift."

The gifts included costume racks, and much-needed steamers to iron out garments after traveling.

"I think I've actually gained strength through this," she said. "Thank you so much."

The show choir members weren't the only ones surprised.

Wishes & More also surprised Ashford, who's a big country music fan, by giving her and her family a weekend at WE Fest -- and a spa package.

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