Barnes scholar Emily Lester dies at 18

Emily Lester, recipient of a 2008 St. Petersburg Times Barnes Scholarship, died early Saturday morning. She was 18.

A two-time cancer survivor, Emily was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2001. Then a sixth grader and captain of her school soccer team, Emily noticed herself becoming tired.

“I had lost that spark, the love of the game, a drive that had usually led our team to victory,” she wrote in her application for the Barnes Scholarship.

The diagnosis, she wrote, “was like a giant boulder plunging into the calm waters of my existence. Suddenly, I was soaked by a splash of fear and uncertainty.”

She went into remission after chemotherapy and entered St. Petersburg High as a freshman in the International Baccalaureate program. But the next year, she relapsed. Her younger sister, Catherine, donated bone marrow to her sister in 2006, and Emily enrolled in classes at Seminole High.

In January, she relapsed again. She was being treated at St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, searching for a new marrow donor.

Emily, of Largo, loved Harry Potter books and wanted to visit Africa and Europe. She planned to major in journalism and pre medicine at Duke University, where she had been accepted. She dreamed of becoming a pediatric oncologist — journalism training, she said, would give her the tools to accurately and succinctly deliver information.

She was ranked fifth in her high school class and had a 3.89 unweighted grade point average. She belonged to the National Honor Society, Mu Alpha Theta math club, Key Club, and Interact Club.

She spent her time volunteering for the American Cancer Society, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and St. Jude’s Hospital. As a team leader for Relay for Life, Emily and her “Chemo Crew” raised more than $40,000 in six years. She also helped organize the Bay to Bay Bone Marrow Drive, bringing more than 200 people to the bone marrow registry.

In February, while at St. Jude’s, she learned the St. Petersburg Times had awarded her a Barnes Scholarship. Established in 1999 and named in honor of former Times chairman and CEO Andrew Barnes, the scholarships are given to high achieving high school seniors who have overcome obstacles. They are worth up to $60,000 over four years at an accredited U.S. college or university.

Emily told the Times that she was more determined than ever to overcome her disease. And despite it all, in her application, she wrote, “I believe my life has played out the way God intended.”

- Stephanie Hayes, Times staff writer