Meet our 2022 Children’s Health Patient Ambassadors! This league of superhero patients are advocates for Children’s Health through sharing their stories of resilience and hope at events and campaigns. They educate others about their journeys, and they also have the opportunity to fundraise for an area of Children’s Health that is meaningful to them. Together, they help make life better for kids just like them.

2022 Patient Ambassadors

Axel, Age 4

Diagnosis: Solid Organ Transplant, Liver
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite movie: Aquaman
Caleb, Age 11

Diagnosis: Cystic Fibrosis
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobby: Playing Baseball
Charleigh, Age 10

Diagnosis: Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobby: Art
Chi-Heng, Age 15

Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite movie: Edge of Tomorrow
Davi, Age 6

Diagnosis: Congenital Heart Defect
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite movies: Hamilton, Frozen 2 and any other movie she can sing to!

Davi's Story: Diagnosed with a congenital heart defect before she was born, 6-year-old Davi has been in and out of our care since 2015. And through it all, she’s had the Red Balloon League by her side. There were Child Life specialists who taught her distraction tricks and brought pet therapy dogs for cuddles. There were doctors who performed life-saving surgeries. And most importantly, there were donors like you.

Read Davi's Story
Edison, Age 7

Diagnosis: Cerebral Palsy
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobbies: Building Legos and drawing fire trucks
Ja'Niyah, Age 11

Diagnosis: Heart Transplant
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobby: Arts and crafts
Kadence, Age 5

Diagnosis: Birth Brain Defect
Location: Children’s Medical Center Plano
Favorite hobbies: Gymnastics, Play-Doh and coloring
Kasen, Age 10

Diagnosis: Leukemia
Location: Children’s Medical Center Plano
Favorite hobbies: All things sports!
Preston, Age 16

Diagnosis: Testicular Cancer
Location: Children’s Medical Center Plano
Favorite movies: All scary movies
Tanner, Age 14

Diagnosis: Cystic Fibrosis
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobby: Gaming
Vienna, Age 13

Diagnosis: Heart Transplant
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobbies: Tik Toks, dancing and sketching
Zoey, Age 12

Diagnosis: Rehabilitation
Location: Our Children's House
Favorite hobby: Drawing

Zoey's Story:

Zoey was 18 months old when she was rushed to Children’s Health after a near-drowning accident. On a feeding tube and barely moving, doctors told her mother, Rebekah, that she’d likely be in a semi-vegetative state for the rest of her life. But as Rebekah leaned over the crib to tell her baby that she loved her, Zoey smiled. And that smile filled Rebekah with hope.

Read Zoey's Story

Photos Coming Soon:

Autumn, Age 6

Diagnosis: Neuroblastoma
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite hobbies: Science, art and all things unicorns!
Eshan, Age 8

Diagnosis: Neuroblastoma
Location: Children’s Medical Center Dallas
Favorite movie: Any Avengers movie

Our Children’s Stories

Learn more about some of our remarkable patients whom received the gift of childhood from Children's Health and supporters like you.

Tanner and Caleb

Brothers Tanner and Caleb are like a lot of siblings. They tease and fight – all in good natured brotherly love. And they’re also each other’s biggest defenders.

Zoey

Zoey was 18 months old when she was rushed to Children’s Health after a near-drowning accident. On a feeding tube and barely moving, a long road to recovery began.

Davi

Davi was born with a congenital heart defect and has a superpower of making the world feel like Candyland – happy, sweet and colorful.

Leone

Leone's parents dress up as superheroes during his treatments at Children's Medical Center Dallas to make him feel like he can defeat anything - even cancer.

ZaZa

As one of our spunkiest patients, ZaZa loves showing off her superpowers of running fast and showing cancer who’s boss.

Rania

A refugee from war-torn Yemen, Rania’s childhood was chaotic, and she struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety. Searching for control in an unpredictable world, she focused on one thing she could determine: how much food she ate.

2021 Red Balloon League

Meet our 2021 Red Balloon League, a collection of employees, patients, families and supporters of Children's Health, unifying to make the impossible possible.

Eli

“I want Eli to have a normal life,” Eli's dad said. “And the only thing I want to be different about him is the scar on his chest, which is a badge of honor for going through what he did.”

Leo and Reagan

In June, Reagan combined his love of baseball and his desire to increase awareness of sickle cell at a baseball tournament that was held on World Sickle Cell Day.

Carlos' Caregivers

We tracked down 10 team members whose faces represent the web of support that surrounds one heart transplant patient’s journey at Children’s Health.

Carlos

While Carlos and his family waited for a new heart at Children's Medical Center Dallas, they found friendship and support from fellow heart patient families.

Jaxon

The pain in his right leg started as a limp Jaxon thought he could walk off, but by the weekend, he had trouble even standing up.

Harrison

Fighting cardiomyopathy during COVID-19, Harrison has been waiting patiently for his new heart at Children's Health.

Abby

A victim of online bullying, Abby questioned her worth. 'What if I wasn't here anymore?' she thought. That's when her journey led her to the SPARC program at Children's Health.

Myra

If you spent time with the always-smiling Myra, you’d never believe she was in an unthinkable battle against mixed phenotype acute leukemia for most of her life.

Lylah

Research treatment at Children's Health has allowed Lylah a chance to do ballet and play baseball, even while battling Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

Mitchell

Crossing the finish line at a 5K is something Mitchell wasn't sure he'd ever be able to do. Because of physical therapy done at Children's Health, now he's running as much as he can.

Kepley

Arriving at 24 weeks and five days, Kepley James entered the world at 1 pound, 10 ounces. Still so small that you could see her lungs through the skin on her chest.

Elli

As they peered over the isolette in the NICU, Jennifer and Angie saw past the crooked smile of Elli’s cleft lip and the congenital heart defect and saw a child they loved instantly.

Arya

“As of that moment, our lives would never be the same,” Arya's mom said. “I felt strongly that if God had chosen me to care for her, then my job was to do whatever it takes to do exactly that.”

Amelia

Looking at this bubbly 5-year-old, you wouldn’t know she had a complex medical history, and that when she was a baby, the Children’s Health foster clinic saved her life.

Addison

Adopted at birth, Addison suffered from frequent ear infections and severe balance issues, which compromised her hearing and delayed her walking until she was almost 18 months old.

Noah

One of our Halloween-loving patients, Noah, made a special trip to Spirit Halloween to get a behind-the-scenes look at how their spooky animatronics work.

Ava

Ava loves Broadway musicals, is obsessed with sharks and wants to be a marine biologist. And like many people, she hasn’t always liked how she looks.

Camila

Her aunt taught her how to apply blush to accentuate her cheekbones and eyeliner to brighten her eyes. But no one prepared Camila on how to fight cancer.

Davion

A muggy Friday evening in late May, wearing a polyester blue gown over a shirt and tie, is not the typical stuff of teenage dreams. But Davion fought for his life to not miss this moment.

Finley

“We’d sang her a million-and-one songs trying to put her to bed or rock her to sleep at night, and she’d never heard any of it,” Finley's mom said. “She’d never even heard us say, ‘I love you.’”

Rome

Her future was bright. The sky was the limit. Until one day last December when it almost all came crashing down.

Obie

Elaine, a mother of four, doesn’t take for granted the chance to rock her youngest, Obie. For the first two months of his life, Elaine couldn’t hold him. An incubator at Children’s Health was his crib.

Jacob

Friends and neighbors of PGA golfer John Senden used to ask how to improve their golf game when they’d see him. Now, they want to know how his 15-year-old son is doing.

Zena

For six months, a Children’s Health hospital room adorned with cutouts of butterflies, hearts and unicorns has been a temporary home for 2-year-old Zena and her mom, Kenda.

Hanna

During her journey at Children's Health, Hanna collected more than 700 Beads of Courage to represent different milestones or treatments, more than any other patient in the trauma program.

Elianna

Elianna was born with two severe heart defects and had her first heart surgery when she was just 13 days old – her heart was the size of a walnut.

Read All Stories

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2022 Patient Ambassadors

Axel, Age 4

Caleb, Age 11

Charleigh, Age 10

Chi-Heng, Age 15

Davi, Age 6

Edison, Age 7

Ja'Niyah, Age 11

Kadence, Age 5

Kasen, Age 10

Preston, Age 16

Tanner, Age 14

Vienna, Age 13

Zoey, Age 12

Photos Coming Soon:

Autumn, Age 6

Eshan, Age 8

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