As an 18-year-old freshman at Eastern Illinois University, Kelly O'Malley was enjoying life. New friends, new classes, parties and football games. Her knee hurt, but she assumed she was just adjusting to campus life.

The pain increased that semester and she saw an emergency room physician near school that prescribed Vioxx and ran a series of blood tests which turned out normal. Then, while home in Elmhurst for the Christmas holiday, she dug deeper, and got an MRI. This showed that Kelly had a tumor in her femur which had gotten so big that it cracked the bone near her knee. It was no wonder she was in pain.

Kelly then took her aunt's suggestion to visit Dr. Walter Virkus at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush, an orthopedic oncology specialist. He was working over the Christmas holiday and was able to see her immediately. He immediately performed a biopsy to determine if the tumor was benign or malignant.

Despite her age, sex and good blood work, the biopsy showed that she had a condition called osteosarcoma, the eighth most common form of childhood cancer.

Dr. Virkus reassured Kelly and her family that her condition was highly treatable with surgery and chemotherapy. The O'Malley family was on board and started treatment for Kelly immediately.

While her classmates were returning to school after the New Year, Kelly underwent an initial five rounds of chemotherapy before her surgery in the spring. Dr. Virkus removed six inches of her femur (shin bone), inserted a metal rod in its place, and performed a total knee replacement. Afterwards, she underwent twelve more rounds of chemotherapy, lost her hair and more than 70 pounds.

Although she reacted as a typical teenager with her ups and downs, she came to call Dr. Virkus her "Bob the Builder", poking fun at his ability to put her femur and knee back together. She even gave him a poster featuring the popular cartoon figure.

Eventually, Kelly returned to college cancer-free, graduated and fell in love. At age 27, this past October, she got married. She walked down the aisle and danced at the reception, the memories of her osteosarcoma and visits to Dr. Virkus in the distant past.

Today, she credits Dr. Virkus with her new life as a staffing specialist in downstate Edwardsville, IL, and her long future with her new husband.

Visit www.triblocal.com/elmhurst and downersgrove.patch.com to read more about Kelly's story.