From Hidden Brain Media, I'm Shankar Vedantam. This is my unsung hero, stories where one person

reached out to help another in a time of need.

I do not know the full name of my unsung hero.

She came straight up to me, she looked me in the eyes, and she smiled.

So whoever you are, thank you so much.

Today's story comes from Katie Aortman Dobel.

In 2014, Katie was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called ocular melanoma. Doctors gave

her 16 months to live. Her father, who was a physician himself, was able to find a clinical

trial that could save her life. A few days

after Christmas Katie flew to New York to see if she would qualify for the trial.

As she endured a series of different tests, she found herself missing her mom who passed away when Katie was a teenager.

So my childhood growing up was very easy, peasy, wonderful.

Two loving parents, and my mom was just my biggest fan.

And she could look at me and she could tell

what kind of mood I was in or what was wrong.

And I both loved and hated that about her.

And so she would say, she would know if I was having a bad day or if something was wrong and she would say I think you need an energy hug.

And so those were hugs that she'd squeeze extra tight and extra long and fast forward to December of 2014 I was just desperate for one of those

hugs from my mom and unfortunately my mom was

diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when I was 13 years old and she passed away when I was

15. So at this point in my life I'm 32 years old and I'm sitting in the waiting room and my brother and I had been there for two days and it had been a rush of running all over Midtown Manhattan and getting to these appointments.

So I had eye exams, I had blood work, I had scans, I had EKGs and

...