The Last Dance

The young lady that I posted about HERE has passed away, I'm sorry to say.

Greg sent me the sad news.

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A 14-year-old cancer sufferer who touched the hearts of people across the country with her unwavering determination to complete a bucket list before her death has passed away.

Katelyn Norman died at East Tennessee Children's Hospital at 8.19am on Friday, a hospital spokesperson told ABC.

She had been fighting osteosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, for two years but doctors told her it had spread to her heart, arteries, pelvis and spine and that there was nothing more they can do.

On learning the prognosis, Katelyn drew up a bucket list of activities she hoped she complete, including a slow dance, learning to drive a car and spending a day with each of her three siblings.

And this week her family and friends ensured she was able to tick off one desire: Attending a prom.

She was supposed to attend the event in her honour in LaFollette, Tennessee on Tuesday night, but had been airlifted to hospital earlier in the day after struggling to breathe.

Outside the hospital, thousands of people lined along Highway 63 as part of a candle-lit vigil for Katelyn, who had insisted that a party continue in her absence.

'She contacted me and said prom must go on, that's her, and you can't help but feed off that energy, that life,' Sharon Shepard, an instructor at Katelyn's school and prom coordinator, told WATE-TV.

'Once you meet her your life will never be the same, she has such an impact.'

The event, which was held at The Stables in LaFollette, had been personalised for the teenager, with the theme 'Katie in the Sky with Diamonds'.

Friends danced, ate and drank at the party, and posed in front of Italian landscape backdrops - a nod to Katelyn's other dream to visit Italy, a dream she never fulfilled.

MORE TEARS HERE