Paige Trimble

Free State High School student Paige Trimble has had her share of trials and tribulations in her mere 17 years.

“You just have to stay positive. I’m always trying to crack jokes and try to make my parents laugh,” the Firebird senior said.

The Trimble family has been thrown one curveball after another beginning in 2002 with the diagnosis of her mother’s breast cancer. That was just the beginning.

Her brother was involved in a life-threatening car accident shortly after her mother’s cancer treatment was completed and was left legally blind as a result. Now cancer is threatening to take the spirited 17-year-old’s father away from her. He received a cancer diagnosis this past April.

“When my dad’s smiling and he’s happy, he doesn’t think about what’s going on with him right now and you just have to think positive. : It’s all going to work out in the end,” she said.

Those close to Paige say she’s a positive influence to everyone who surrounds her.

“She is a really inspiring person. I am really glad I have a friend like her in my life,” said Lauren Self, Paige’s close friend.

As captain of the Free State varsity cheer squad, a member of the concert choir and women’s choir, and a state-qualifying violinist in the school’s orchestra, Paige now has been rewarded for her strength and perseverance in a monumental way. She recently received an invitation to attend the Presidential Youth Conference in Washington, D.C., this coming January.

“I was really excited once I read about it. : You get to go and participate in mock trials and meet the Supreme Court and tour Washington, which is really exciting for me,” Paige said. She views this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

With family finances low, the KU Medical staff has established a fundraiser called “Pennies for Paige.” The staff is working to raise the nearly $3,000 needed to attend the event. The funds must be raised before the Friday RSVP deadline.

“It’s really our position to be part of the community and give back to the community, and when we say we want to help our patients, it’s not just from a medical standpoint,” said Jill McDonald, outpatient director at KU Medical Center.

The fundraiser has raised more than $2,200.

“The family really believed that the time frame was too short; we didn’t think that it seemed too short at all. It seemed perfectly reasonable to be able to attain the goal,” McDonald said.