Kids and teens battling cancer can sometimes miss out on the holiday spirit, going through treatments no child should have to go through.
But the holidays have always been a special time for 16-year-old Roxanne Rodriguez-Mite.
Al Miller “I love Christmas so much,” Rodriguez-Mite said.
She spends her December nights watching movies by the fire with her parents and four younger siblings. It’s not what some 16-year-olds would consider an ideal night, but Roxanne is unlike any teenager.
Al Miller “She’s turning 17 in April and then she’s finishing high school in a few months and then she’s starting a certified nursing assistant program in January,” mom Elizabeth Velez said.
You would almost never know Roxanne is battling one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of cancer, small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma. She was diagnosed on April 5, 2023.
Al Miller “I’m never going to forget that day,” Velez said.
Roxanne went through six rounds of chemotherapy before going into remission at the end of 2023. But the cancer came back again this year, prompting more chemotreatments and immuno-therapy.