At 11 years old, Stephan was a normal child who enjoyed playing videogames and playing the drums. But one day when his mother Patricia took her three children to the movie theater, Stephan began to limp while walking down the stairs, complained of a stomachache, and suffered from cold sweats. His mother took him to the local children’s hospital in Miami where doctors found a 20-inch tumor in his stomach.
Worried by the news, Stephan’s parents sought help. His uncle, who supports the St. Jude partner clinic, Unidad Nacional de Oncología Pediátrica, in Guatemala, informed the family about St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
In January of 2007, doctors referred Stephan to St. Jude where physicians diagnosed the disease as desmoplastic small round cell tumor, a highly aggressive tumor that frequently occurs as multiple masses in the abdomen. The child received five rounds of chemotherapy and underwent a high-risk surgery.
Stephan will have to undergo five cycles of chemotherapy treatments, a bone marrow transplant and five cycles of radiation. This brave child has a 35 percent chance to beat this cancer. Stephan and many other children at St. Jude need your support today. Please send in your monthly donation and help us find a cure for childhood cancer.
Created by St Jude Patients