Gustavo-Alexis

Gustavo-Alexis
August 15, 2002 – August 1, 2008

Forever 5
A very happy, sweet healthy little boy who loved life so much, Gustavo-Alexis was an animal and train-lover. One day in December 2004, we had noticed that Gustavo-Alexis started limping. His Pediatrician referred him to an orthopedic doctor who did an x-ray and said he had a fracture in his knee.

I left there shaking my head because I knew there was something more than a fracture. A mother just knows. We took him to another doctor for a second opinion and repeated the x-rays in both legs. The x-rays revealed the same spot in his knee.

His doctor ordered an MRI and a biopsy. Well, what happened next changed our lives forever. I was told my sweet, happy 2 ½-year-old son had stage IV cancer. What? How could this be happening? CANCER is a word that has seemed so evil to us since that day, a word that we have been afraid to say, a word that we couldn't say, a word that literally took our breath away. Cancer was the word that stopped our family's whole world in one simple second.

We arrived at St. Jude Children's Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee on February 4, 2005. The next day they did a bone marrow aspiration and our worse fear was confirmed. Gustavo-Alexis was diagnosed with stage IV Neuroblastoma.

The next three years, traveling from state to state to find better treatments, he battled as hard as any child with cancer does. Despite being isolated from family and friends, two surgeries, many hospitalizations, clinic visits, numerous side effects from chemotherapy and radiation, blood and platelet transfusions (too many to count), Gustavo-Alexis remained cheerful, and he enjoyed his life to the fullest.

In his short 5 ½ years he taught us what it means to live with HOPE, something that I, as a cancer parent lived on.

I have committed my life to keep fighting for that HOPE…and raising funds for childhood cancer research to develop new and improved treatments, in memory of him and all those beautiful children who earned their angel wings because old treatments were not enough, and for all the children who have fought and are still in the fight.

Your support to Cookies for Kids Cancer gives those children that are still fighting a chance at life.