Young dancer's journey inspires cancer fundraiser

Dancers with Sudbury's Dance Evolution recently raised more than $3,500 for the organization Northern Ontario Families of Children with Cancer from their last performance.

Last year, one of the studio's competitive dancers, Kameryn VanWallengham, was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of six.

Dance Evolution quickly created a fundraising show to help finance the family's travels back and forth from Sick Kids and Ronald McDonald House in Toronto.

Kameryn battled through her sickness for more than a year and is still going through treatments.

She jumped back into Dance Evolution's full-time competitive program as of January 2013, and danced at the second annual fundraiser to raise money for children like herself.

Kameryn even asked director Ali Loney if she could make a speech to the audience to thank the dance studio community for all the help and support they gave her last year.

“She spoke so maturely, and even though she's now only eight years old, she is well beyond her years because what she has gone through,” a press release from the dance studio said.