DATE: Monday, October 6, 1997               TAG: 9710060080

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO. . . AUTUMN HENDERSHOT, THE CHESAPEAKE HORSE RIDER WHO HAD HER LEG AMPUTATED?

Autumn Hendershot was just 15 years old and was a talented horseback rider when she learned she had bone cancer. On March 12, 1993, her right leg was amputated above the knee. She also had to undergo several months of chemotherapy before and after the surgery.

Autumn Hendershot will turn 20 this month, and, despite having lost a leg, she continues to ride horses.

She doesn't get to ride nearly as often as she would like, however. But it's not her leg that keeps her from her favorite activity - it's motherhood and all the time and demands that come with it.

Now going by her married name, Autumn Maret is the mother of a little boy named Tyler, who will celebrate his first birthday Oct. 22.

She's also working as a nursing assistant at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk - the same hospital where she underwent cancer treatment. She works in the transitional care unit, where ventilator-dependent patients are prepared for the trip home, to a long-term care facility or, as Autumn puts it, to heaven.

Autumn plans to go back to school for training as a licensed practical nurse. Eventually, she said, she hopes to complete enough schooling to become a registered nurse. Her ultimate goal is to care for child cancer patients.

``I like working with kids and I wanted to give something back to them,'' she said. ``I feel I can really relate to them because I've been through it myself.''

Autumn said she ``really bonded'' with the nurses when she was in the hospital and would like to provide other child patients with the same kind of loving care she got.

Autumn began riding again after her surgery, but sold her horse after she got married. She started taking riding lessons after she had her baby and was even jumping again. But the lessons were too expensive for her to keep up. So now she occasionally rides a friend's horse when she can find the time.

Although her pregnancy was difficult, Autumn's son is very healthy and active. Her labor was induced two weeks before her due date because her kidneys, damaged by the months of chemotherapy, were having trouble holding up to the strain of pregnancy.

Autumn walks with a prosthesis and gets around fine, although she said she still is self-conscious about walking with a limp.

She has yearly exams to check whether the cancer is returning. So far, she's received only good news. In fact, Autumn's doctors have told her she is the first documented case of a patient diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma to have 100 percent of their cancer cells killed.

``I really don't worry about it anymore,'' she said. ``There was a time when every time I got a headache, I'd think, `Oh, no.' But not anymore.'' MEMO: Whatever Happened To. . . appears every Monday, and we welcome

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Autumn Maret holds her son, Tyler. Although she had her right leg

amputated because of cancer, Autumn continues to ride horses on a

limited basis. Her goal is to be a nurse helping young cancer

patients.

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