Meet Sara, who didn’t let chemotherapy stop her walk across the graduation stage
When she was diagnosed with cancer her senior year, her Children’s Health care team made sure she didn’t miss any incredible moments
Sara has been in and out of the hospital since she was a baby.
When she was 5 months old, physicians diagnosed her with mitral valve stenosis, a heart defect that can make the heart work harder to pump blood, cause blood to back up into the lungs and weaken the heart over time.
For most of her life, she’s relied on a mechanical valve to help her heart regulate blood flow.
And as she grew up, she learned the importance of listening to her body. So, when she began experiencing strong headaches and back pain, Sara, then a high school senior, ran a quick blood test at home. The results confirmed her blood was clotting too slowly, placing her at a higher risk for dangerous bleeding.
Sara’s mom rushed her to the hospital.
At Children’s Medical Center Plano, physicians ran some blood tests. Not long after, an ambulance transferred Sara to the health system’s Dallas campus.
But during the speedy siren ride, all Sara could think about was the AP Spanish project due the next day.
“I was just stressed about school,” she said. “I was like, ‘Dang it, my project!’”
After further testing at Children’s Medical Center Dallas, home to the Pauline Allen Gill Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, an oncologist told Sara she faced acute promyelocytic leukemia, or cancer of the blood and bone marrow — and they needed to start chemotherapy immediately.
Sara remained at the hospital for treatment for the next six weeks, experiencing tough complications like respiratory failure and differentiation syndrome, a life-threatening inflammatory condition, which she overcame with the help of her expert care team.
They're more than your care team. They really do show up for you. They're like family.
— Sara, Children's Health patient
Creating meaningful memories at the hospital
Despite going through some of the toughest moments of her life, child life team members helped make sure Sara didn’t feel like she was missing out on life outside the hospital.
At Children’s Health, child life specialists support patients and families experiencing the unthinkable. On top of helping patients understand their diagnosis or preparing them emotionally for invasive procedures and surgery, they also create meaningful experiences that get kids back to being kids. The program comes at no cost to families and is supported by generous donors.
While at the hospital, Sara celebrated Halloween by dressing up as an angel and braving her way through a haunted house the Child Life team put up for patients.
“That was really fun,” she said.
Doing arts and crafts in the hospital playrooms and cuddling up to the Children’s Health Pet Therapy Program dogs provided Sara with welcome distractions, but it was music that helped Sara get through the toughest days.
A music therapist would stop by her room every other day, bringing instruments to play and sing together. Sara mostly requested music from the musical “Waitress” and bands like Paramore and The Velvet Underground.
“My music therapist was honestly amazing,” Sara said. “Music was one of the things that helped me the most. There’s something so raw and great about live music, it’s just so healing.”
Her care team constantly found ways to make Sara’s twin brother, David, and her whole family feel included in Sara’s journey.
During his visits, Sara’s music therapist would invite David, who plays the guitar, to join in on their jam sessions.
Normally, the sick kid gets all the attention, and I think it’s hard and isolating for siblings. David felt included. He could feel like he was helping me as well.
— Sara, Children's Health patient
Although she still had a long journey ahead of her, Sara was able to go back home after her six-week-long hospital stay.
For the next nine months, she received chemotherapy regularly, but she was able to do that from the health system’s Plano campus, closer to her family’s home.
“I made really good friends with all the Plano nurses,” Sara said. “Every time I go for my appointments, we're always talking it up.”
Celebrating incredible moments at Children’s Health
With the help of the School Services department at Children’s Health, which provides help for patients at no cost so they can keep up with their school needs, Sara successfully finished high school virtually.
But being away from her friends and missing her choir and theater senior shows was hard. Because of her chemotherapy treatment, she also couldn’t attend her high school prom and graduation.
“It really started hitting after a couple of weeks,” Sara said. “It was really hard because that was my last year of high school.”
Care team members at Children’s Health know hospitalization can be particularly tough for teenagers, so ensuring they get to experience and celebrate big milestones is a critical part of their work.
Each year, the Child Life department organizes a prom for the older patients, who can choose a dress or suit and get their hair and makeup done before joining the party.
Andrea O'Neill, Certified Child Life Specialist and program coordinator of Child Life events at Children’s Health, organized the dance after a patient she helped care for was unable to attend their prom due to an unexpected hospitalization.
Each year, patients tell Andrea and her team how meaningful the event was for them.
Providing these normalizing experiences is a big part of Child Life’s work. It's a reminder of why we do what we do. We can also make sure patients who may have different abilities can get that experience as well. We believe that every patient should have an opportunity to experience prom.
— Andrea O'Neill, program coordinator of Child Life events
Wearing the light blue dress she’d originally bought for her school dance, Sara attended the hospital’s patient prom with her best friend, mom and stepdad.
“It was so much fun,” she said. “I’ve made a lot of friends with cancer at the hospital, and a lot of them were there.”
And after learning Sara wouldn’t be able to attend her school’s graduation because it fell on the same day she had to go to the hospital to receive chemotherapy, her care team quickly got to work to organize her own ceremony at Children’s Health.
Surrounded by the people she now considers family, Sara walked down a hospital hallway in her cap and gown to receive her diploma.
“I was really grateful for that,” she said. “I got a card signed by them, and we had a little party.”
In 2025, Sara celebrated another incredible moment at Children’s Health — ringing the bell to celebrate the completion of her cancer treatment.
Her family, care team and the friends she’d made at the hospital gathered with colorful streamers and pompoms to commemorate the extraordinary milestone. They brought gifts and cupcakes, and Sara gave an impromptu speech.
“It felt surreal. When you first get cancer, the only thing you’re looking forward to is ringing the bell,” Sara said.
Looking forward to the future
When imagining what her future holds, Sara, now 19 years old, dreams big.
“I have a lot of things to say and a lot of things I want to achieve,” she said.
After slowing down and taking a break from dance, theater, choir and skateboarding throughout her cancer journey, Sara’s been getting back into her favorite hobbies.
“I’m really excited to just get my life started again,” she said. “I’m very grateful for where I am now. I’m happy.”
Inspired by the incredible care team that stood by her through some of the toughest moments of her life, she’s now in college pursuing a career in nursing. One day, she hopes to serve cancer patients just like her.
“It’s so important for the entire family to know that someone out there is supporting you,” Sara said. “Facing cancer is still really hard, but it makes it a little easier when there are others in the community helping take care of you.”
Whether powering our people and programs, both inside the hospitals and within our communities, or furthering our ability to make breakthroughs happen, these extraordinary stories would not be possible without generous support from our donors.
And just like Sara, the people who care for her have big dreams, too. Now these donations are helping build the new Dallas pediatric campus to expand access to treatment for an increasing pediatric population.
“This is a growing community,” Sara said. “With this expansion, and with the help of donors, Children’s Health will be able to help more kids with complicated needs. Having a hospital for kids where you can get all your care in one place is extremely important.”
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