Determined to help other families with children diagnosed with cancer, a Ball Ground family has created a fund to raise money to fight childhood cancer.

Eddie and Tammy Hunter, the parents of 9-year-old Hayley Hunter, have created the Hayley Hunter Research Fund in the hopes of raising money to help CURE Childhood Cancer, a nonprofit organization that funds research and provides education and support to families.

Hayley, a fourth-grade student at Macedonia Elementary, was diagnosed in April 2008 with neuroblastoma, a form of cancer that develops from branches of nerves from the spinal cord.

The Hunters are organizing a golf tournament to raise money for the Aflac Cancer Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, where Hayley received her treatments.

The golf tournament will be conducted Sept. 17 at the Bradshaw Farms Golf Course. Registration will begin at 8 a.m. and the shotgun start will follow at 9 a.m.

The cost to participate is $100 per player, which covers range balls, green and cart fees, lunch and donation to the Fund.

A silent auction will take place after the tournament and trophies will be handed out. Potential donors will also be able to attend the event if they donate $100 to the fund, Mrs. Hunter said.

So far, the fund has raised $15,000 since its creation in February, Mrs. Hunter added.

Mrs. Hunter added she's hoping to raise between $15,000 and $20,000 and have 100 golfers participate in the fundraiser.

"I would consider that a success," she said.

Before Hayley was diagnosed, she experienced leg cramps, Mrs. Hunter said.

She took Hayley to the pediatrician, who said her spleen seemed enlarged.

After looking at Hayley's midsection, doctors discovered multiple tumors in her abdominal and chest cavity.

The cancer also had spread to the lymph nodes in her neck, making Hayley a stage-4 patient.

Hayley last year completed chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation - with high-dose chemotherapy and an infusion of stems cells previously collected from Hayley.

Mrs. Hunter said Hayley is "doing great." To monitor her progress, she will undergo full-body scans every three months for two years.

"There's a fairly high rate of relapse," Mrs. Hunter said of the cancer.

The scans will then be reduced to every six months for two to three years, then once a year for up to ten years.

Along with school, she takes dance lessons twice a week at Hickory Flat Dance Academy.

A neighbor of the Hunters has been thoroughly impressed with Hayley's handling of her cancer diagnosis.

Tracy Smith of Ball Ground said Hayley did not let her cancer put a damper on her outgoing spirit.

"I cannot imagine anyone handling it the way she did," she said. "If it bothered her, she never let it show. She never let it get her down."

Hayley's experience has even caught the eye of an older cousin.

Morgan Page, the 17-year-old daughter of Chuck and Chandra Page of Bradshaw Farms, is documenting the lack of funding for pediatric cancer in her senior project.

Morgan, who attends Sequoyah High School, said Hayley's cancer diagnosis and her subsequent treatment "meant a lot to her."

"I want to make people aware of the lack of funding," she said.

That's the same message Mrs. Hunter said she's working to get across to the general public.

Chemotherapy, she said, has its long-term repercussions such as high-frequency hearing loss, scoliosis and possible infertility.

Finding a cure, she said, will be the safest bet to shielding children from the harmful affects of cancer.

"You may get rid of the cancer, but you are creating other long-term affects," she said.