16-year-old Calgarian recognized at European science fair for cancer treatment research

A 16-year-old Calgarian has taken away an international award for her cancer research.

Colette Benko just came back from Estonia, where she competed in the European Union Contest for Young Scientists.

The idea for Benko’s research on neuroblastoma came from personal experience. At 13, she was diagnosed with cancer.

“I saw the need for research that don’t cause long term side effects and I also saw other patients that were even younger than me receiving the same treatment and that’s how I came to neuroblastoma […] it effects children at such a young age,” said Benko.

The Gr. 12 student has competed at other science fairs with her research. Most notably she won best project at the Canada wide Science Fair, which made her eligible for the E.U. contest.

“I was a little bit nervous because I never competed on a huge scale like that but it was such an incredible opportunity.”

Out of the almost 90 projects competing, Benko came away with second place and 5,000 euros.

Colette plans to continue her research as she wraps up her last year of high school.

“Develop it as much as possible so that it can have as much of an impact. Then I hope to start university and go into cancer research in the future.”

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