It was evident from childhood that Colleen Anderson was meant to help others.

"She liked to share things with people and do things for people," her mother, Margaret Anderson, said. "She was always doing things for me. The earliest that I remember was - she would have been about in third grade - when Teflon first came out. She thought the pan was dirty, so she scraped all the Teflon out of the new pan."

From that well-meant task, Ms. Anderson would grow up and channel her good intentions to delight cancer patients when she started Project Valentine after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. This year, Ms. Anderson and her helpers stuffed roughly 500 goodie bags and delivered them to cancer patients on Valentine's Day.

Ms. Anderson died at her home in Denver on Sunday. She was 44.

"What really generated (Project Valentine) was when she was diagnosed in February five-and-a-half years ago, a woman came in at Rose Hospital to explain all the resources available to her," Margaret Anderson said. "That service got cut, and Colleen wanted to replace it on a limited basis. She said it was so important to her and made such a difference that she wanted to do it for other people."

She grew up in Greeley and graduated from the University of Colorado.

After she was diagnosed with cancer, Ms. Anderson threw herself into training for the Danskin Triathlon, the largest multisport race in the world that benefits the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

"She wasn't really a natural athlete," her mom said. "It really took effort. Sometimes she was discouraged, but she didn't give up. She did the triathlon, but she didn't swim. One of her friends swam for her."

Until March, Ms. Anderson continued working as the manager of the Continuing Engineering Education Program at the University of Colorado at Denver.

"She did seven conventional chemotherapies and then seven experimental trials, which were risky," her mother said. "Each one bought her a little more time."

Ms. Anderson's good friend, Amy Smeester, said she's exploring ways to keep Project Valentine going.

"I have a feeling a large team of people will be taking it over," Smeester said. "Maybe I'll be the quarterback, but we need a lot of help." If you'd like to join the team, e-mail amy@smeester.com or call 303-907-3722.

Ms. Anderson is survived by her sister, Kathleen Anderson-Hall, of Seattle; her brother, Kent Anderson, of Albuquerque; her aunt, Shirley Waugh and uncle, John Waugh, of Arvada; and cousin Karen Ratterman, of Arvada.

A memorial service will be held at 7 p.m. Saturday at Corona Presbyterian Church, 1205 E. Eighth Ave., Denver.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Diana Price Fish Cancer Foundation, online at dpfcf.org/newsite/givefaqs.html, or checks may be mailed to DPFCF, P.O. Box 22919, Denver, CO 80222.