JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Thirteen-year-old Bria Brown visited Shands-Jacksonville Tuesday to give a Teddy bear to her doctor, orthopedic surgeon Hudson Berrey, as he prepares to head to Iraq to treat wounded warriors.

It's not just any bear. It is one of dozens Brown has collected and personalized for other children battling cancer.

"I know what they're going through and I know all the things that's going to happen," Brown said. "They're going to lose their hair; they get like dark circles under their eyes and fingers."

At age 6, Brown was diagnosed with osteosarcoma -- a rare form of bone cancer. For all the years since, she and her family have commuted from Miami to Shands-Jacksonville every three months so that she can receive limb lengthening treatments.

For Brown's Teddy-bear project offering hope and encouragement to other young patients, she was selected from nearly 20,000 applicants as one of the top 10 youth volunteers by the National Prudential Spirit of Community Award.

"It's a pretty big accomplishment and we also got a prize of $6,000 and a $5,000 grant for any charity that we want to give it to," Brown told Channel 4's Ashley Townsend.

And what does Brown plan to do with her $6,000?

After she got herself a new outfit, the rest of it went to "the high school I'm going to and for the Teddy bears."

When Brown is not making Teddy bears for young cancer patients, she volunteers with the American Cancer Society.

"I go to lobby for more cancer research and cancer treatment dollars every year in Tallahassee," Brown said.

Her family is not only glad she's healthy, but they are in awe of her spirit.

"I'm very proud," said her father, Ed Brown. "But beyond proud, this is preparing her for life."

Brown said she feels like she has a special gift, and giving the Teddy bears to kids offers hope to young kids battling the disease that she was able to overcome.