Students and staff at Nerinx Hall held a memorial service Friday to honor the life and memory of Clare Blase, a freshman student who died following a nearly two year fight against an aggressive form of cancer. She was just days away from her 15th birthday, according to her obituary in St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Blase's story was chronicled in September on Patch, ahead of the 2012 Pedal The Cause event.

"Pedal the Cause gives me hope,” Blase, of Shrewsbury, said at the time. “To me, hope means that I can look forward to being around the people I love for a long time. We need to find a cure so parents don’t have to hear the sad news that their child has cancer.”

Blase's battle against adrenocortical carcinoma has served as a source of inspiration to those who knew her and her family, including a pair of brothers, Nick and Brendan, 2012 graduates of De Smet Jesuit High School. 

Patch has used Storify to collate some of the tributes and shouts of support for Blase which have been posted on social media in recent weeks including a Tweet from St. Louis Blues star David Backes.

Visitation hours are 1-9 p.m. at Kutis Funeral Home, 10151 Gravois Rd., on Tuesday, Dec. 18, according to her funeral notice in St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The funeral mass is scheduled at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 19 at St. Michael the Archangel Church, 7622 Sutherland Ave.