Stories

LIVING IN A DREAM: MARISA

Hi! My name is Marisa and I am 12 years old. When I was nine years old, I was diagnosed with Marrow Cancer. The way symptoms started to show up, was when I started having fevers almost daily without explanation. Also, small red dots appeared in my eyes which became the first main symptom I developed, and made me realize that something was wrong. Because of that, my mom decide to take me to a clinic; and they took on me some blood tests that gave low results for platelets, hemoglobin, among others. Later, I was moved to another clinic where I got into a procedure of Bone Marrow aspiration. It was very harsh for me, as they made my whole body feel in pain. .

Later on, doctors made biopsies in me because I started to had spots in my body that were either red color or purple color and it was when I was diagnosed with Cancer. For treatment, I went through chemotherapy which were very exhausting, but it helped me to stop the cancer spreading. Months later, I was candidate for a Bone Marrow Transplant. Guess what? My Dad was the donator, and the surgery was successful. Since the day of the surgery symptoms have not shown up again or any signs of cancer, although I have to frequently go to the doctor to rest assured.

Her mother’s words:

La pequeña Marisa desde muy chica empezó su batalla contra el cáncer y lo logró vencer. Ella es una niña muy valiente, decidida y empática. Cada vez que habla de su experiencia de triunfo contra el cáncer siempre dice: “Dios me dijo sí a la vida y la viviré feliz”. Desde muy chica ella ha soñado con ir a la playa y cuando le dijimos que podíamos hacer su sueño realidad ella se entusiasmó mucho, aunque ella decía que no le molestaba dar su lugar a otros niños que estuvieran pasando por lo que ella ya pasó. En Febrero 2020 pudo hacer realidad su sueño junto a otros niños dentro del programa Sueño de Playa y ella lo disfruto bastante ya que quería conocer la arena y jugar con ella, fue lo primero que hizo al llegar a la playa. Tanto le gustó estar disfrutando su sueño que no se quería regresar a casa y me decía que si nos podíamos quedar a vivir ahí.

Living in a dream

Marisa, who is only 12 years old and diagnosed with marrow cancer, tells us about her wonderful experience living her dream visiting for the first time the beach.