Kristin Elliott of Richmond, Texas, now 18, has been fighting an aggressive form of cancer since she was 16. That was when the all-state volleyball player had a massive tumor removed from her leg.

Learn more about Kristin's orphanage Faith West Academy.

"All this attention and kind of flattery, and saying, I'm an inspiration is kind of, I'm not used to it," she said.

Her mother, Terri Elliott, said, "With her type of cancer, it's very rare, the statistics are not good. And like 2 percent of the population of the world have it, and they don't survive past a year."

Kristin's endured multiple surgeries and radiation, and she has kept playing on.

"All through it, she didn't miss any school, she didn't miss her volleyball. She lived, she pulled us along," Terri said.

Kristin even traveled to Africa on a church trip during a remission. And when in Zambia, she and her sister worked with children orphaned by AIDS.

The most common request is a Disney trip, but Kristin wanted something more than make believe.

"I told them that I wanted to build an AIDS orphanage house in Africa, and I wanted them to help," she smiled, "if they could."

Teri Andrepont of the Make-a-Wish Foundation said, "We've never, never had that request before -- never, never an orphanage."

"There was a man there with me, and he just kinda looked at me like, 'Are you sure? That's what you want?'" Kristin recounted. "Of all the things you could ask for, are you sure? And I just thought, Yeah, that's what I want. I can't imagine anything else that I would need."