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"  On May 28th, a 13-year-old English girl named Athena Orchard lost her battle with osteosarcoma \u2014 bone cancer \u2014 that affected her shoulder, spine, and head. Orchard&amp;#039;s illness had progressed rapidly since she noticed a small bump on her head in December, reports the Daily Mail.   Her mother says, &amp;quot;We knew the cancer was very aggressive, the doctors had never seen anything like it. She fought it as long as she could but eventually she became too weak to get out of bed,&amp;quot; the mother said. &amp;quot;She was so beautiful and athletic, she loved boxing, it was horrible to watch her become gradually weaker.&amp;quot;   But before Athena succumbed to cancer, she wrote a 3,000-word letter to her family on the back of a mirror for them to find. Her parents were stunned. Her father said that Athena never mentioned it, but &amp;quot;it&amp;#039;s the kind of thing she&amp;#039;d do. She was a very spiritual person, she&amp;#039;d go on about stuff that I could never understand \u2014 she was so clever. I started reading it but before long I had to stop because it was too much, it was heartbreaking.&amp;quot;   Excerpts from Athena&amp;#039;s message:   Happiness depends upon ourselves. Maybe it&amp;#039;s not about the happy ending, maybe it&amp;#039;s about the story. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is that little extra. Happiness is a direction not a destination. Thank you for existing. Be happy, be free, believe, forever young. You know my name, not my story. You have heard what I&amp;#039;ve done, but not what I&amp;#039;ve been through. Love is like glass, looks so lovely, but it&amp;#039;s easy to shatter. Love is rare, life is strange, nothing lasts and people change. Every day is special, so make the most of it. You could get a life-ending illness tomorrow so make the most of every day. Life is only bad if you make it bad. If someone loves you then they wouldn&amp;#039;t let you slip away no matter how hard the situation is. Remember that life is full of ups and downs, without the downs the ups don&amp;#039;t mean anything. I&amp;#039;m waiting to fall in love with someone I can open my heart to. Love is not about who you can see spending your future with, it&amp;#039;s about who you can&amp;#039;t see spending your life without. Life is a game for everyone but love is the only prize.   Follow Anna on Twitter.   Photo Credit: Caters News Agency "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/news/a26387/teen-girl-cancer-mirror/?src=rss>