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 Griffin
As an Air Force family stationed abroad, Griffin’s family was living in Germany when he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on Veteran’s Day 2019.
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Meet Krew
What started out as a seemingly innocent bump on the head was later heartbreakingly revealed as cancer. Krew was diagnosed with leukemia at just 7 months old.
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Meet Jean Pierre
At 18, Jean Pierre is headed to university. At three years old, he was treated at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital® for craniopharyngioma, a slow-growing brain tumor.
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Meet Ava
Five-year-old Ava had a cancerous brain tumor called medulloblastoma. Referred to St. Jude, she underwent a second surgery, proton therapy and chemotherapy.
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Meet Sariyah
In the summer of 2020, photos taken of St. Jude patient Sariyah by her mother showed signs of cancerous tumors in both eyes at the age of 18 months.
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Meet Patient Lucas
Around Thanksgiving of 2020, three-year-old Lucas was complaining of headaches. His parents thought he just wanted attention. An MRI indicated something more serious.
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Meet Eri'Elle
Eri’Elle was just two years old when her troubles started. Her mother took her to a pediatrician and insisted they run tests to get to the bottom of her baby’s symptoms.
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Meet Scarlet
At St. Jude, Scarlet and her mom lived at Target House for half a year while Scarlet was in treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. Her family never received a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food. .
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Meet Gabe
When the lights on the Christmas tree hurt Gabe’s eyes, his mom knew something was wrong.
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Meet Calvin
At St. Jude, Calvin underwent chemotherapy, proton therapy and radiation treatments for rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer of the soft tissue. He continues to receive treatment at St. Jude, having experienced a recurrence of cancer in 2020.
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Meet Lydia
Lydia has an unusual hobby for a kid her age: reading scholarly articles in medical journals. But not just any articles. She’s interested in those authored by Dr. Gajjar, the man – along with nurses and researchers and others at St. Jude – working to save her life.
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Meet Gracie
Gracie was eight months old when she was diagnosed with blood cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and physical, occupational and speech therapies at St. Jude.
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Meet Patient Mikayla
Over Christmas 2020, something was wrong with then one-year-old Mikayla. Referred to St. Jude, her cancer was identified as acute myeloid leukemia. Mikayla successfully underwent chemotherapy.
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Meet Weiming
Weiming was diagnosed with a rare disease, an immunodeficiency known as bubble boy disease and came to St. Jude at just four months from his home country of China.
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Meet Twila
Twila was brought to her local hospital for an ear infection. When the pain didn’t resolve, doctors ran tests and found brain cancer. She was referred to St. Jude and placed on a treatment plan.