She’s 20 years old, her college career as a sophomore at Northern Arizona University is well under way and a bright future shines ahead for Amanda Rae Coughlin, a 2009 Sedona Red Rock High School honors graduate with a 4.0 grade point average.

On March 29, Coughlin’s world came to an abrupt halt. Doctors diagnosed her with adenocarcinoma, an incurable form of cancer, but one that can go into remission. The cancer is in her liver and on her spine in the area of the sacrum.

Now, Coughlin, who grew up in Sedona, is back home with her secondary education on hold as well as her job at Junipine Restaurant, and is receiving rounds of chemotherapy. The oncologists are treating the cancer as Stage 4. Meanwhile Coughlin is receiving full-time care from her mother, Barbara Coughlin, who left her job with the Sedona-Oak Creek School District to focus her energy on her daughter. Amanda Coughlin also receives whole food nutrition and supplementation to rebuild her compromised immune system, according to family friend, Robin Cunningham.

“Amanda is a wonderfully and beautifully spirited young lady with a warm heart, and full of light and love. She has touched the lives of many people in this community. Everyone who knows her loves her,” Cunningham said. “She and my daughter, Breanne, have been friends since the third grade.”

Breanne Cunningham said there is so much she could say about her lifelong friend.

“She’s been a sister to me throughout the years. She’s very special to everyone who meets her,” Cunningham said. “It’s been rough, and we’re all praying for her recovery. We are all going to be there for her.”

Coughlin attends Christ Center Wesleyan Church with her family, loves music, writing, reading and playing the keyboard. She also loves riding her bicycle through the Sedona countryside.

Cunningham said everyone who has heard about Coughlin and her fight with cancer has offered prayers, love and support for her.

Because of their love for Coughlin, her friends are throwing a benefit concert to help raise money in support of her fight against cancer on Sunday, April 17, at the Szechuan Restaurant and Martini Bar from 5 to 10 p.m. There will be a live performance by the Oak Creek Band.

Two members of the band, Daniel Watters and Jenna Cunningham, are close friends of the Coughlin family and fellow Sedona Red Rock High School graduates.

At the concert there will be silent auctions, raffle prizes and music to benefit the Coughlin family and help pay the mounting medical expenses. To help, 15 percent of the dining and bar proceeds will go directly to the family. People can also make a donation by way of PayPal through Coughlin’s Facebook page: www.facebook.com/Love4Amanda.

“They can just hit the donation button and it will go directly into the family’s bank account for Amanda,” family friend Dana Cavanaugh said.

Another family friend, Joy Moore, is helping with the benefit and said it not only is to raise money for the medical bills, but to keep Coughlin’s spirits up.

“Many of her friends who have moved out of town are coming in. This benefit will bring most of her loved ones together in her honor,” Moore said. “This is one of those thing where you just say, ‘Really?’”