Growing up, Kristina was always an active and outgoing girl who was frequently a part of her school’s cheerleading and dance teams. But during her junior year of high school, she began to experience pain in her lower abdomen. After a series of doctor’s appointments and exams, scans revealed that Kristina had a mass on her right kidney. While doctors initially suspected the mass was kidney cancer, a biopsy revealed that it was in fact Ewing sarcoma, a type of bone cancer.
Kristina was referred to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where she underwent a year of chemotherapy, followed by 49 rounds of radiation therapy. Currently, she is finished with treatment and visits St. Jude every three months for checkups. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90%, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.
During her time as a St. Jude patient, Kristina was fortunate to befriend a fellow patient named Markell. Because of their proximity in age, Kristina and Markell formed a special bond that helped them through some of their most difficult moments. “There were times that I wanted to give up,” said Kristina. “But Markell always helped because he never gave up.”
Unfortunately, Markell passed away in February 2016. Currently, Kristina plans to draw even more inspiration from Markell as she wants to connect with other St. Jude patients and share his story. “I want to honor his legacy by sharing his story, but also let it serve as an inspiration for current St. Jude patients,” said Kristina. “I want to help other patients be unstoppable like Markell.”
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Meet more patients
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Meet Jose
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Meet Carl
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Meet Ay'Den
Ay'Den is a kind boy with an easy smile. When he collapsed, his family was afraid he had COVID-19. Ay'Den would be diagnosed with leukemia and referred to St. Jude.
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Meet Myla
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Meet Brayden
Brayden received chemotherapy as well as proton therapy for medulloblastoma at the first proton therapy center in the world dedicated solely to children.
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Meet Eli
At just 6 years old, Eli was diagnosed with osteosarcoma. His family was referred to St. Jude for his treatment and Eli underwent surgery to remove the tumor and a portion of his tibia.
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Meet Max
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Meet Nova
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Meet Aspen
Aspen was not yet two when diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She was treated in the Philippines but six months later, the cancer was spreading so she was referred to St. Jude.
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Meet Keegan
Before age 2, Keegan was diagnosed with leukemia and her family was referred to St. Jude where doctors immediately got to work trying to save her life.
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Meet Eduardo
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Meet Thiago
Thiago loves to dance to the rhythm of his dad's djembe. In 2019, he was born with bubble boy disease and was referred to St. Jude where he underwent a new gene therapy to save his life.
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Meet Aaron-James
At age 2, after being diagnosed with sickle cell disease, Aaron-James came to St. Jude where he loves talking to the nurses and doctors.
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Meet Imani
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Meet Leah
Leah is a big sister who loves dresses, shopping, singing and helping in the kitchen. In March 2019, she was referred to St. Jude for acute lymphoblastic leukemia treatment, which included a transplant with her mother as her donor.