September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. While rare, the National Cancer Institute says cancer is the leading cause of disease-related deaths in children and teenagers. NBC 5’s Noelle Walker reports on a Richardson family hoping their experience will help raise awareness.
Octavia Castillo is like many 5-year-old kindergarten girls; she loves sparkly shoes and dresses and is eager to learn.
Unlike her classmates, Octavia is starting kindergarten with a teacher coming to her home in between cancer treatments.
"I thought I saw something weird on her neck," said Jessica Castillo, Octavia's mom.
That was Mother's Day weekend. The cancer diagnosis soon followed: Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the soft tissue.
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'Fortunately, we got the results; it was Stage 1, localized at the neck," said Octavia's dad, Silvino Castillo.
According to the National Cancer Institute, while rare, cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death among children and teenagers. Childhood Cancer Awareness Month is meant to raise awareness and money for research and treatments.
"I mean, we're very fortunate that her treatment plan is a year," said Jessica Castillo. "But just seeing your kid suffer for a year, two years, three years; it's too long, so we need to figure something else out."
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For Octavia's part, she described her treatment as "not bad.'
"She's doing a lot of this stuff with a smile, which is hard to do," Jessica Castillo said. "You can see when she walks the hallways at Children's or when she's in the radiation center. People just turn and look because she's kinda magnetic and sparkly."
'It's definitely one of the most challenging things we've gone through in our life," said Silvino Castillo. "I think if you're going through a process like this, just realize you need to take one day at a time."
Jessica Castillo said this lesson is valuable for her young daughter.
"That she can do hard things," Jessica Castillo said. "Let yourself be loved because it takes a village. It really does."
