Cancer victim kept dream 'to help others'

Those who knew Steffanie Collings called her a soldier, courageous and compassionate.

Fitting words for an 18-year-old who fought brain cancer the last five years of her life and still dreamed of the future and hoped to help others.

Steffanie, inspiration for legislation to require insurance coverage for routine health care costs for patients who undergo clinical trials, died Thursday, a day after the bill passed the state Senate.

She was told by her father Wednesday that the bill, called Steffanie's Law, had passed the Oklahoma Senate.

"Steffanie knew before she passed,” her father, Monty Collings, said.

Steffanie Collings had undergone care that was part of a clinical trial, but some of the routine health care costs — such as lab tests and doctor's visits — that normally would be covered by insurance were not covered in her case as well as other patients undergoing clinical trials that test new medical treatments.

Although battling a brain tumor that had left her weak and in a wheelchair, Steffanie came to the state Capitol in January and spoke in support of the legislation.

"Steffanie went to be with our Lord around 1 a.m. this morning,” her father wrote in an e-mail to family friends.

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