It was last January when Aimee-Lynn Cumming began to feel pain in her abdomen.

"It was sort of like nausea, like the flu,” the 12-year-old Whitehorse girl said in an interview Thursday afternoon.

She went to Whitehorse General Hospital, but a firm diagnosis eluded doctors.

Further visits revealed nothing, though the pain and exhaustion worsened, coming in waves each month.

Last May, the day after Mother's Day, Aimee-Lynn visited the hospital yet again, with her mom, Jennifer.

"We were told to basically wait it out a few days and come back later,” Jennifer said. "She said, ‘Nope, today's the day I go to the hospital.' She knew that there was something definitely wrong.”

That was a Monday.

By Wednesday, Aimee-Lynn was at B.C. Children's Hospital with a rare liver tumour diagnosis, an experience that would lead her — while ill — to begin soliciting donations for other sick children in lieu of birthday presents for herself.

She was suffering from focal nodular hyperplasia, a benign liver condition found more often in women more than three times her age, according to the U.S. National Institute of Health.

"You always say it, but you really don't believe it can happen to you until it actually does,” Jennifer said.

Her daughter was in and out of hospital for a week, seeing a liver specialist from Vancouver General Hospital and staying at the Easter Seals House, a low-cost residence for children and parents.

"The people are really nice,” Aimee-Lynn said of staff there.

"They weren't the most comfortable beds,” she added, laughing, but said she considers the Easter Seals House "a home away from home.”

Aimee-Lynn returned to Whitehorse but flew back to Vancouver last June for an operation, spending a week in hospital.

Still in recovery, she had a belated birthday party at her grandparents' home in Whitehorse.

She invited friends, family and parents' co-workers to drop by, with donations for kids undergoing treatment in Vancouver. She raised roughly $1,800.

Asked why a prolonged bout of illness, physical pain and, at times, fear and uncertainty made her want to think of others rather than herself, Aimee-Lynn said: "I don't know why I wanted to. I just did.”

She's felt in top form for months, returning to hip-hop and jazz dance as well as musical theatre.

The seventh-grader, who attends Ecole Whitehorse Elementary School, said she was also just glad to be back home with her mom, dad, older sister and golden retrievers, Zeus and Jazz.

But Aimee-Lynn isn't content to rest on her achievements.

"My plan is to get presents and give them to the Easter Seals House and the hospital,” she said of her blueprint for the holidays. "A doll would be cool.”

"‘Mummy, I know what I want for Christmas,'” Jennifer recalled her daughter saying.

"We had talked about going somewhere nice and warm and hot... and they both said, ‘definitely not.'

"I have two pretty special girls, actually. I'm pretty lucky,” Jennifer said.

She and Aimee-Lynn have set up an account at Angellina's Toy Boutique on Main Street where people can donate money.

Closer to Christmas, Aimee-Lynn and an employee will use that to pick out gifts they think children in long-term or palliative care at B.C. Children's Hospital might enjoy.

She'll have a hospital wish list to guide her.

She also plans to drop off toys in at the Easter Seals House gift box as well as taking cash donations to pass along directly to both institutions.

"They think it's pretty cool,” she said, smiling.