Kate Foster lost her leg to a leukemia-related infection when she was 12, but she didn’t let that stop her from becoming a competitive gymnast. “I’ve never found anything that I liked more,” said Foster, now 16. “She loved him from the very beginning.

Extra workouts, extra gym time,” her mother, Barb Foster, told ABC News. The leukemia diagnosis was a significant blow to the budding athlete. Kate remembers being told that the infection in her left leg could take her life if her leg was not amputated.

“I said, ‘You don’t… you don’t cut off my leg. I need it … for gymnastics, ”she recalls telling her doctors. “And they kind of explained to me, you know, ‘you know, this bone marrow transplant won’t work if we don’t do it.’ It’s really your leg or your life.”