HUMBLE, Texas – As we close out September, also known as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, the process can be isolating for families with a child undergoing cancer treatments. However, community members at Humble ISD are coming together to show families like 12-year-old Sofia Figueroa’s, they are not alone.
The vibrant, happy 12-year-old girl is undergoing treatment for leukemia, an experience most will never understand and still is surreal for her.
“At the beginning, I wasn’t really sure how I felt. I was still shocked, like, wow, this is happening. I have leukemia. Because I never thought this might happen to me,” she said. “I have that hope like, this isn’t it. This isn’t forever. I’m still the same person. I’m just with a different experience.”
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Her mother, Monica is a Spanish teacher at Kingwood High School, adds this may be the hardest thing they’ll ever experience.
“You never expect a big diagnosis like this. And so in that moment, I had to do what I had to do,” said Monica Figueroa.
However, they have found support in the Humble ISD community through its Gold, Fight, Win initiative. So far, the district has raised more than $300,000 in T-shirt sales. Students, staff, and athletes wear them throughout the month.
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The signs of support are everywhere, even on the gridiron, where Sofia was recently a special guest for the coin toss at a football game.
“It was really cool because I was standing next to players that were gigantic compared to me,” said Sofia.
Humble ISD partners with three local nonprofit charities, including the L3 Foundation, Mothers Against Cancer, and Addi’s Faith Foundation, named after Addison Bender, who passed away from a brain tumor in 2007, just a few weeks before her second birthday.
“She’s just forever a perfect little angel,” Addi’s mother and co-founder Amber Bender said.
Her parents were determined to change that and founded Addi’s Faith Foundation in the hopes Addi’s legacy lives on.
“We had to treat her with these drugs that were outdated, designed for adults, really toxic, and didn’t even work,” said Bender. “So funding research is really important to us so we can find safer, more effective cures for kids with cancer.”
“We have made some great progress over the years for pediatric cancer,” she added. “We have a long, long way to go.”
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children, according to the American Cancer Society. Only 4 percent of federal funding for cancers is given to pediatric cancers.
“Pediatric cancers are not rare, they’re being neglected,” said Dr. Vidya Gopalakrishnan with MD Anderson Cancer Center, who worked with Addi.
“She should have been a beautiful 16, 17-year-old at this time, entering college, preparing to go to college,” said Gopalakrishnan.
She says awareness would lead to funding to support these little warriors, their families, and vital research.
“I am hopeful. That’s what keeps us going. Science is all about, you know, having hope. If you give up hope, then there’s nothing to look forward to, nothing to move forward towards,” said Gopalakrishnan.
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Sofia and her mother say it’s hope that has given them strength during their fight.
“My husband and I, we’ve been here for 23 years and I mean, we feel this is like our community, our home, but we haven’t feel this way. I mean, it’s really, really amazing to feel like we belong,” said Monica Figueroa.
“I’m really grateful for all those people that find it in themselves to donate. Just to see what the kids and people are going through and just look in their hearts.”
Sofia is in remission and the treatment she’s undergoing is to ensure the cancer doesn’t come back. She’s already looking forward to going back to school in January.
To learn more about Addi’s Faith Foundation, visit their website. You can also learn more about L3 Foundation, by clicking here. Learn more about Mothers Against Cancer by clicking here.
