THE KIAMA community is mourning the loss of Ashleigh Collins, who died in the early hours of Saturday morning after a lengthy battle with cancer.
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The 20-year-old Kiama resident had been fighting Metastatic Ewing Sarcoma, a form of bone cancer occurring most frequently in young people.
Ms Collins was a typical year 12 student at Kiama High School, focused on her upcoming HSC, when she started to feel pain in her pelvis.
A cancer diagnosis soon followed.
Her life was resigned to a hospital bed as she began treatment for the tumours which eventually invaded every vertebra in her spine.
However, Ms Collins took part in the 2013 Kiama Relay for Life as a survivor, believing she had beaten the disease.
The cancer later returned.
Ms Collins was an active participant in the Kiama Relay for Life.
Last October, Ms Collins was presented with a trophy in honour of her team being the highest fund-raisers at that year’s event, which supports the Cancer Council.
She received so much support that ‘‘Team Ash’’ had to be split into two, the teams raising in excess of $25,000 between them.
She died about 3.55am on Saturday at her family home.
Ms Collins' funeral will take place on Wednesday at 2.30pm at The Pavilion.
She requested no flowers, but instead that donations be made in her name to the Kids Cancer Centre/Children's Cancer Centre Foundation and Ewing's Sarcoma research study.