His daughter died, but he fights on for those children still struggling with cancer

Jacksonville — “She never stopped fighting.”  Even in the face of a deadly form of adult leukemia which ravaged her eight year old body, Chris Quindoza tells WOKV his daughter, Kristen “Kiki” Quindoza, never said “no” to a treatment, and kept up her spirits until the end, 9 months after her diagnosis.

“In the short nine months that she battled, she had everything,” Chris said.  “She was in the ICU for a week, she had a heart procedure, brought on by the stress, I’m sure.”  But although his daughter was fighting, Chris found himself feeling powerless to help, and along with that feeling came a crushing loneliness.  “There’s not a lot you can do as a parent, or even a sibling, to help that child, and you have to rely on so many different people.  You have to have a good support network,” Quindoza said.

In the years since his daughter was diagnosed in 2002, Chris decided to give back to some of the organizations that helped his daughter during her fight.  And in her spirit, he continues fighting for others today as a counselor at the Child Cancer Fund’s Camp Boggy Creek during family weekends.