CANCER AWARENESS
Man walks to raise awareness for childhood cancer
A man who has been personally impacted by cancer, through family members with the diagnosis as well as his own, has made it his mission to bring awareness to a form of the disease that he feels gets less recognition than most — childhood cancer. Jim Hickey makes long journeys on foot all over the country and dedicates each walk to a child battling the disease. His most recent trip was from Austin to San Antonio, and it was dedicated to Stella Serna, a nine-year-old girl with cancer in her brain and spine.
“Stella’s a firecracker,” said her mom, Cynthia Vanegas. “She's very caring, and she just loves life. She loves to sing, and she has a kind heart.”
Initially Hickey’s walks began as a way to raise funds for cancer research in general because he had seen the devastation the disease can cause firsthand.
“Reason I started was — this goes back to 1995 — I saw my dad die of prostate cancer. We had him home for the last month. It was just still the most horrible way I've ever seen anybody die of cancer. My dad's upper body became completely skeletal. His legs became twice the [normal] size because of blood clots. My dad's pain was just absolutely horrible. And if that wasn't bad enough, six months later, my brother was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” Hickey said. Although his brother survived, “for that six months from when he was diagnosed until the surgery, I'm thinking, ‘Am I losing my brother to the exact same kind of cancer I just lost my dad to?’”
As for Stella, it’s been a struggle for her and her family since her brain cancer diagnosis in 2021.
“She had surgery. We were able to remove about 70 to 80% of the tumor that was in her spine. After that, she did 30 rounds of radiation. We thought that we were just kind of monitoring it, and things were going to be okay,” Vanegas said. “Unfortunately, she relapsed in Jan. of 2023, and now she has a few more tumors at the top of her spine and five in her brain. So for the last year we've been doing treatment. She had another 25 rounds of radiation, and she's been doing a full year of two different chemos. But unfortunately, in May, we had a setback, and she was diagnosed with … a diffused large B cell lymphoma, a secondary cancer, from her immune system just being too low and then the lymphoma kind of taking over her lungs.”
Vanegas said the summer was pretty rough for their family, but Stella’s been improving. “We're stable,” Vanegas said. “And we're just enjoying every moment.”
Last year, Hickey himself was diagnosed with cancer. But the disease, along with a painful looking and swollen knee injury, will not stop him from helping kids in need and educating the public about childhood cancer.
“I was diagnosed with both kidney and bladder [cancer] at the same time,” Hickey said. “I wound up having six surgeries since. One of them, they took out my left kidney. My bladder is going to be a long process, starting probably next month. They're going to start a treatment with me called BCG. They've already scraped out 11 tumors from my bladder. BCG treatment, which is where they take tuberculosis, and they insert it into my bladder. I have to be awake during that. I'm not looking forward to that.”
Vanegas doesn’t expect any funds to come from the walk because she’s just “so happy and honored that he's doing this to help spread awareness of childhood cancer.” However, Hickey would like them to get some financial assistance to alleviate some stress. “It's been very difficult,” Vanegas said, adding that both her and Stella’s father were working before her diagnosis.
“After she was diagnosed, I had to quit my job to be a full-time caregiver for her. So financially, it was very hard on the family. It has just taken a toll on everybody. It doesn't just affect the child, it affects the entire family's — siblings and everybody — [who are just] trying to get through this, and keep it together.”
Learn more about Stella’s journey at this link facebook.com/TeamStella1 and help her family with a donation at this link supportnow.org/stella-serna-and-her-family.
