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In January 2008, Kate Kiernan was a carefree teen who loved reading, art and basketball.

Then, all of a sudden, she wasn't.

After injuring herself in a basketball game and going to the hospital, Kate was diagnosed overnight with acute promyelocytic leukemia, a rare form of cancer that affects only 50 children and teens a year in the United States.

"It was like one minute I was playing basketball and the next I was in the hospital with cancer," the 16-year-old Chevy Chase resident said. "It was weird."

Her battle with the disease—and her eventual defeat of it—is what led her to be named a 2009 Festival of Heroes "hero" by the Children's National Medical Center.

She will be honored at a banquet Saturday at the Bethesda North Marriott.

"She just dealt with this with a remarkable amount of courage," said Dr. Reuven Schore, Kate's oncologist at Children's. "The resiliency she showed during her treatment was great."

Kate had a few things going in her favor: doctors discovered the disease fairly early and her specific form of leukemia has a fairly high survival rate, close to 90 percent. Still, there were battles. She spent a month in the hospital for inpatient chemotherapy, then a month at home, then a few more months at Children's. All the while, her classmates at Bethesda's Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart were moving through their classes, and still playing tennis and basketball. Kiernan was in a hospital bed, losing most of her hair and 20 pounds.

"I missed dances and my confirmation, and I hated not being a part of it," she said. "I always really liked school, and then all of a sudden you're in a hospital and your friends have to stop by just to see you."

Then, in June 2008, the good news came: Kate was in remission. Now she's back at Stone Ridge as a sophomore, and she has returned to the tennis courts this fall where she played junior varsity doubles.

"I couldn't ask for a better teammate than Kate," Coach Jae Ko said. "She's a fighter, and even when she didn't feel 100 percent, she would come to practice. She gave everything she could to the team."

Kate was selected as a hero this year because her parents are close with the event's co-chairwomen, Deidre Atkins and Allison Portnoy, and they knew the story of her battle, said Children's spokeswoman Amanda Keating. The event is one of the largest fundraisers for Children's, with a goal of raising $250,000 this year to support efforts to cure childhood cancer.

When Atkins and Portnoy asked Kate whether she would serve as hero this year, she leapt at the chance.

"I think it will be a good chance for me to get to talk to people about it, and help raise awareness," she said. "I just want to make sure everyone's experience with this is as great as mine was. I need to bring attention to all the wonderful people who helped me."