Anne-Louise van den Nieuwenhof with her husband Ryan Kelly and daughter Elizabeth. "She sat in the waiting area and was feeding Beth," said Mr Kelly. "I gave her a peck on the cheek and said 'I love you' and went downstairs to get a sticker for the chart and heard the code call. I didn't remotely think it was for us. I got a sickening feeling and ran to the fourth floor and was met by someone saying it was her." Mr Kelly stood by his wife's side with Elizabeth in his arms as emergency staff, including one of her best friends, performed CPR on her for nearly two hours. "She was the love of my life, she loved Emerson and Beth with every ounce of her soul, she never hid her emotions, the outpouring of love and kindness and caring we have been receiving barely represent how much she touched so many of us," said Mr Kelly.



Anne-Louise van den Nieuwenhof's children Emerson and baby Elizabeth. While an autopsy is still inconclusive, preliminary results indicate Anne-Louise's death may have been caused by a burst cyst in her pancreas that resulted in massive bleeding in her abdomen. An alumnus of Santa Sabina College in Strathfield, she was buried last Thursday in a cemetery overlooking the Columbia River - an occasion that became shadowed by another tragic event. Anne-Louise van den Nieuwenhof with her siblings Mary-Ellen, holding Emerson, Timothy and Michael. Anne-Louise's colleague at Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital in Trail was killed as she was driving home from the funeral with her husband and two-year-old son. A tree fell from a cliff, landing on their vehicle.

"When [Amanda Koppin] heard of Lou's sudden passing just six days after having our beautiful Beth, she came to our home delivering a washing basket filled with thoughtful supplies," said Mr Kelly. Anne-Louise with her father, Ray. "She offered us to come visit her family in Christina Lake and was arranging for breast milk from mothers in the Grand Forks area for Beth." Anne-Louise's sister Mary-Ellen said mothers from around Rossland have been dropping off breast milk for Elizabeth. "Some of it has been sitting in their freezer since they've had infants and others are mums who are breastfeeding themselves and have been bringing over spare bottles. Elizabeth will probably be breastfed longer than any child," she said.

Anne-Louise and her extended family have dual Australian-Canadian citizenship and her father Ray van den Nieuwenhof, younger sister Mary-Ellen and brother Timothy also live close by. Her mother Christine lives in the family home in Concord, while brother Michael is also in Sydney. Her father said that when she was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of five, doctors decided against amputating Anne-Louise's arm as the tumour was too close to her lungs. Instead, he said Anne-Louise may have been one of the first people in Australia to be treated for the cancer with a triple dose of chemotherapy brought from the United States. She again developed secondary cancer while in year 11 at Santa Sabina College, had extensive head and neck surgery and was permanently prescribed a range of medications including anticoagulant drug Warfarin to prevent blood clots. But even with her "shopping cart full of medical history" and more than 200 separate occasions in hospital, Mr van den Nieuwenhof said Anne-Louise had filled her life with more activities and achievements than someone twice her age.

At the age of 17, she was asked by Sydney's City of Canada Bay mayor Angelo Tsirekas to stand for preselection in the 2004 local government elections, but missed out by a handful of votes. She went to East Timor to volunteer at orphanages, was a spokeswoman and junior board member for the Cancer Council and worked as a nurse in Tamworth, Broken Hill and Alice Springs for three years before moving to Canada. Christine van den Nieuwenhof said that despite being left with an arm shorter than the other due to years of radiation therapy, her daughter still "played a very mean game of cricket, great at sledging" and joined an ice-hockey team, canoed, played softball and fished. One of the hardest tasks for the family has been trying to explain to Emerson where his mum has gone, said sister Mary-Ellen. "Ryan is going really well. He's keeping it together for the kids," she said.

"In the morning when [Emerson] does wake up he asks Ryan, 'Hey dad, where's mum?,' and dad just says mum's up in the sky with the angels". A fundraising account set up to help support the family has so far raised more than $38,000. A Sydney memorial will be held at Santa Sabina College chapel on April 7 at 10am.