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Patrick Dempsey’s mother, who provided inspiration for Maine cancer centre, dies at age 79

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FILE - This Oct. 8, 2011 file photo shows actor Patrick Dempsey participating in the Survivor Walk with his mother, Amanda, right, in Lewiston, Maine, on the first day of the Dempsey Challenge. Amanda Dempsey, who inspired her son, actor Patrick Dempsey, to help create a cancer support organization at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, died of cancer on Monday, March 24, 2014 at age 79. (AP Photo/Sun Journal, Amber Waterman) MAGS OUT; TV OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT

LEWISTON, Maine – Patrick Dempsey’s mother has died of cancer six years after inspiring him to help create a cancer support organization at a hospital in Maine. Amanda Dempsey was 79.

Central Maine Healthcare CEO Peter Chalke says she was “a determined fighter who displayed tremendous courage, class and grace during her long battle with cancer.”

The Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing was founded in 2008 by the “Grey’s Anatomy” star and his two sisters in partnership with the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston, where their mother received treatment.

Amanda Dempsey for five years led the survivor walk during the Dempsey Challenge, an event that raised $5 million for the centre.

Centre officials say she died Monday surrounded by family. She’d fought multiple recurrences since being diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1997.

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