KEY POINTS:
Tae Kami hasn't just beaten cancer in the past year but managed to outscore most of her fellow pupils at Queen Salote College in Tonga despite spending most of last year undergoing radical facial surgery in New Zealand.
The 13-year-old, who was featured in the Herald in 2005
struggling with a recurring growth on her face, is now clear of the cancer which forced Auckland doctors to remove her upper jaw including bone, teeth, tissue and the roof of her mouth.
Tae has had four rounds of surgery last year, on top of five in 2005.
But with study at the Starship hospital in Auckland and material sent from Tonga she managed to keep on top of her studies and came top in three subjects and third overall in her third form year at college, earning herself a special prize.
Tae still has to pay careful attention to her health because she is prone to infection from all her treatment.
"Just last month I went back [to New Zealand] for more scans because I was having a fever ... but they came back all clear."
At first, the Tongan teenager's medical condition was a mystery to doctors who repeatedly performed surgery to remove tumours in her face that kept coming back. Last February, her family, who had already spent thousands of dollars on her treatment in New Zealand, got the bad news the tumour was cancerous.
The Tongan community in New Zealand and in Tonga raised more than $200,000 towards Tae's mounting medical costs, with help from surgeons who waived their fees, for which the family remain deeply grateful.
Now Tae is back in her village home at Kolomotua, in Nuku'alofa, where she recently enjoyed her first swim of the year in the ocean.
Tae had a low-key Christmas at home with her parents and two younger sisters. "I'll just be enjoying myself," she said.
But, in March, she heads back to New Zealand for reconstructive surgery and then later to have teeth in her upper jaw replaced.
She remains philosophical as ever about the challenges she still has to face. In her online journal, Tae writes: "Explanations and answers, we try to explain things but we really don't know why they happen ... maybe the answer is in the situation itself."
Read more about Tae's battle with cancer at Taekamifund.org
