![](http://www.tulsaworld.com/articleimages/2008/200803_A1_hHisc85465_Cancer12a.jpg)
Amanda Bighorse, a member of the Cherokee Nation, is on her way to becoming one of the few Indian oncologists in the country.
Bighorse, 24, is a medical student at Oklahoma State University. At first she wanted to become a pediatrician but changed her focus after he father died last August of leukemia.
"He was the rock of our family. There've been many times in the last few months that I've wanted to give up," Bighorse told The Tulsa World of her father, who worked as a manager at Cherokee Nation's tribal employment rights office.
There are only two other Indian oncologists, or those who study tumors, in the country.
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Father's death focuses student
(The Tulsa World 3/12)