We really don’t need another reason to admire surfer Bethany Hamilton. Her never-give-up attitude is the stuff of Hollywood scripts. The movie Soul Surfer, about her amazing comeback to surfing after losing her arm to a shark attack, has not only defied critics and netted a tidy profit, it’s also earned her a new generation of admirers.

Many of her biggest fans are fighting their own battles. In the case of eight-year-old Kendall Curnuck, sadly, it’s the life-threatening kind. The tiny little dancer from New York recently spent months enduring debilitating chemotherapy after being diagnosed with leukemia in January of 2010.

Since seeing the movie about Bethany’s struggle, however, Kendall has had little problem finding the courage needed in her ongoing battle. And she got an extra dose of inspiration when Hamilton and the Make A Wish foundation sent Kendall and her family to Hawaii for a personal surf lesson. The whole thing was caught by ESPN cameras for their beautifully executed My Wish campaign. See for yourself.