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NORTH ATTLEBORO - The humor and the courage of Meghan Duffy is being remembered by those close to the 11-year-old, who lost her leg to cancer earlier this year and who has now lost her life.

Meghan died Thursday night in her North Attleboro home, with her parents and her grandmother at her side.

"Meghan had endured much pain in the last week and we are grateful that this pain has ended and she passed so peacefully," her parents, Colleen and Frank Duffy, wrote in a message on the Web site CarePages.

Meghan was featured in The Sun Chronicle in July for her role as a Pedal Partner in this year's Pan-Massachusetts Challenge, a bicycle ride that benefits the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and its Jimmy Fund clinic, where Meghan was treated.

She first battled cancer at the age of 3 months when leukemia was diagnosed and then successfully treated. She remained cancer-free until last year, when a tumor emerged in her leg and was determined to be osteosarcoma, a form of bone cancer that could have been caused by the radiation she received as an infant. Doctors removed her leg in January, and she improved for awhile, but a secondary tumor later emerged on her spine.

She was healthy enough through the summer to help organize a Pedal Power Kids Ride in her neighborhood that drew more than 100 youngsters, and she was on the route of the PMC in early August to cheer on her team and her father.

Her condition deteriorated later that month, and in a Web posting on Sept. 2, her parents said her illness had progressed "at an alarming and potentially irreversible rate."

In their message Friday, the Duffys thanked all those who had supported the family over Meghan's lifetime, but especially over the last difficult year.

"We are so proud to have been her parents and know that she was truly a gift from God," they wrote.