News & Notes: Penn student passes away due to cancer

Zhu’s family learned in the beginning of November that her osteosarcoma cancer had spread to her lungs and was progressing too fast for treatment to be effective, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported. Doctors then informed them that Zhu would have about a month to live.

Zhu, having been diagnosed in her freshman year of high school, had been battling cancer for years.

Family and friends described Zhu as a friendly and bubbly person, even entertaining friends over Thanksgiving break in her final days.

“She was still trying to be cheerful, and you could hear a lot of laughter,” her father told The Daily Pennsylvanian. “She’s an amazing kid — sunny and cheerful to everybody. Only rarely did she show her sad side, but mostly she kept an unfading smile all the time that was contagious to friends around her.”

Zhu is survived by her parents, sister and grandparents.

Funeral services will be held at the Flemington United Methodist Church in Flemington, N.J. on Dec. 3 at 11 a.m., with calling hours held from 9:30 a.m. until the service begins.