Published: Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 5:34 p.m. Last Modified: Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 5:34 p.m.

But Dec. 22 was the day that threatened to rob Lowther of everything. It was the day she was diagnosed with leukemia, a day she remembers vividly almost a year later.

Lowther, 29, has since reclaimed the ambition that chemotherapy strangled from her, with plans to return to medical school in January.

The Florida woman also spent most of August training for a 26-mile inline skating marathon Saturday in Minnesota to raise funds for her doctor's cancer research, all while receiving regular chemotherapy. Her resolve is a far cry from the woman she was that December night, angered and in disbelief.

She had been suffering from chronic headaches and visited an urgent care clinic to see a doctor, get a prescription and get back to her studies at the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine in Bradenton.

But the doctor returned with startling news: Lowther's white blood cell count was 64,000 cells per microliter, far outside the normal range. The medical student knew exactly what that could mean cancer.

At that point, doctors determined she should travel to UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville to receive treatment immediately. She was heavily anemic and too weak to travel, so she was given a blood transfusion at the local hospital, still wearing her pajamas from the previous day.

During the three-hour ambulance ride to Gainesville, she began connecting the dots.

Her past year was pockmarked with unexplained illnesses, fainting spells and an elevated heart rate. She had chalked it up to stress and energy drinks third-year medical students aren't always the healthiest individuals but now those incidents were symptoms of something more serious. Something deadly.

The diagnosis was unusual: acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease typically found in children or the elderly. Her bone marrow was producing unformed white blood cells at an alarming rate, smothering everything else in her blood.

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Resilient college student shines while being treated for cancer at Shands