Karlene Selset, featured in the March 7 Bellevue Reporter story “Cancer battle gets a helping hand at Overlake Hospital,” died April 14 at the age of 42 following a long struggle against a rare form of lymphoma.

Selset was born on Oct. 23, 1967 in Yakima. She was a 1986 graduate of Davis High School, and graduated magna cum laude from Central Washington University, majoring in English with a French minor and earning her teaching degree as well.

After college, she taught French and English at Toppenish High School, and then married her husband, Billy, in 1994.

The couple moved to Kirkland, where their daughter was born in 1999, and eventually settled on Lake Sammamish in Bellevue, where they had a son.

Selset worked in IT for Safeco Insurance (now Liberty Mutual). She loved to travel, and took trips to Paris, Hawaii, Puerto Vallarta, Disneyland and Disney World with her family, according to those who knew her.

The Reporter featured Selset for her use of Overlake’s Cancer Resource Center.

Selset is survived by her husband; daughter, Linnea; son, William; parents, John and Rose Ann Trudeau; sisters, Cari McClelland and Kellye Masters; and five nieces and nephews, as well as numerous in-laws, aunts, uncles and cousins.