When a child is diagnosed with cancer, the entire family is thrown into a roller coaster of emotions throughout their child’s cancer treatment. That is what Sergio and his family experienced after he was diagnosed with childhood Leukemia.
Sergio is 5-year-old that wears cowboy hats and enjoys making memories with his family. Sergio lives in Texas with his parents and four siblings. Their family circle goes beyond their immediate family of seven and includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Hands down, Sergio’s favorite activity is, “having a party!” Sergio’s mom, Bobbie, shares, “He is a people person and LOVES having everyone come over or going to visit.” What is most impressive to Sergio’s mom is “his eagerness to learn and understand how things work, it blows me away every time because he’s such a fact finder.”
There are multiple days each month when Sergio and his family travel out of town to a Children’s Hospital farther from home. Sergio will help pack his hospital bag with his favorite items from home. He packs his iPad, blanket and snacks and always remembers to take a different toy each trip to show his doctors and nurses. This friendly five-year-old captures many smiles when he strikes up conversations with the hospital staff. Because of his charming personality, he can have entire conversations with complete strangers.
Difficult days for Sergio’s family include the ones leading up to Sergio’s chemotherapy treatment days. Bobbie shares that, “We don’t like to tell him he’s getting chemo until the night before because it makes him anxious thinking about what’s to come.” And when they do tell him and he wants to cry, “we remind him how brave and strong he’s been, how the medicine has made and continues to make him better. We tell him we don’t want to go either, BUT it’ll be ok cause we’ll go together, kick ass, and come home.”
Sergio’s mom, Bobbie heartfully shares a few encouraging words to other families facing a childhood cancer diagnosis, and that is “to have faith and trust God even though it feels so overwhelming. It’ll feel like you’re on longest road ever but you gotta just walk right through it. Take it one day at a time and know that you can do this”.
This family stands united while facing the challenges of pediatric cancer. And as Sergio continues to travel for his treatment, Compass to Care has been able to assist his family make 35 trips to treatment. We, along with his large and loving family, and his extensive medical team, are all rooting for Sergio. Because of your generous support, Sergio has hope for many more family BBQ outings with his loved ones.