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Childhood Cancer Awareness Month: Survivor Studying To Be Nurse After Being Inspired By Medical Professionals Who Helped Her

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Being told you have cancer is a diagnosis no one wants to hear, but it's especially painful when the patient is a child.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time when doctors want to remind us that 15,000 children a year are diagnosed with cancer in America.

On Monday, CBS4 spoke with a childhood cancer survivor who plans to pay it forward.

"My first semester of high school I started feeling pretty slow, pretty sluggish," said Sarita Moreno.

Moreno was 15 when she was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukemia, requiring an intense chemotherapy at Salah Foundation Children's Hospital at Broward Health. The treatment regimen lasted two and a half years.

"Thankfully, I recovered," she said. "Thankfully I had wonderful nurses and doctors to help me and without their help I wouldn't be here today."

Sarita Moreno
(Courtesy of Sarita Moreno)

"Now Sarita is in remission she has been in remission since 2017 and we are very happy that she is doing so well," said Dr. Hector Rodriguez-Cortes, a pediatric oncologist.

But getting there was a long journey for Moreno and her family.

Doctors say childhood cancer is rare, but remains the number one killer disease for children.

Typically, the treatments are physically exhausting and often financially and emotionally devastating for families.

"I was very vocal and very clear that I did not like what was happening. I didn't feel like a brave person I just had something I didn't have a choice to deal with," said Moreno.

Sarita Moreno
(Courtesy of Sarita Moreno)

Moreno, who is now in remission and a student at Florida Atlantic University, is hoping to pay it forward inspired by the medical professionals who helped her conquer childhood cancer.

"Their work helped me and inspired me so much that now I'm a nursing student at FAU," she said.

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