Just four months after being declared cancer-free, 4-year-old Enzo Herrera relapsed.
He is now fighting his second battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
However, he is not fighting alone.
The Allied Gardens community, especially the folks at Enzo’s transitional kindergarten school, Marvin Elementary, have done all they can to support the Herrera family.
“His teachers love him so much,” said Enzo’s mother, Alexandra Herrera. “They come once a week, and they text me every day, ‘How’s our boy?’ And they bring him dinner, or they bring him toys. And our whole TK room, all the parents got together and they got him toys and activities.”
Alexandra is currently living at Rady Children’s Hospital with Enzo and her six-month-old son Rowan. Their father, Alexander, commutes back and forth from work to the hospital.
Enzo’s GoFundMe has raised thousands of dollars to help pay for gas, food, income lost from taking time off work and, of course, medical bills.
Enzo’s immune system is currently at an all-time low, which requires him to keep a small circle with minimal visitors. However, this is no deterrent for Enzo’s many classroom friends, who stand outside his window, wave and FaceTime him from there.
“Enzo is the sweetest little boy in the world,” said family friend Kim Morris. “I don’t know why it is.… He’s really good at talking with adults, which maybe that comes from talking with nurses and doctors all the time.
“He’s just very empathetic, just likes to see people happy and just wants to be friends with everybody.”
Morris believes he takes after his parents in this way, who have kept a positive attitude ever since Enzo’s first diagnosis in May 2023 at just two years old.
“If you talked to them during that two years, you wouldn’t know that they have a little boy with cancer, because both of them just have this ability to just bring positive energy around everyone,” Morris said.
The Herrera Family. From left to right: Enzo, Alexander, Alexandra and Rowan. (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Herrera)For Alexandra, it is all about pushing through what you can’t change and being grateful for every day they get to spend with Enzo.
“Even when we found out that he’d relapsed, we were sad for a second, and then we said, ‘Nope, we just got to keep moving forward. We just have to keep going,’” Alexandra said. “Because he deserves nothing but the best, nothing but positivity and good vibes and everything else.”
Enzo had just a 3% chance of relapsing after he rang the bell to celebrate remission in July — but Alexandra’s motherly instincts told her she’d be back.
Because of this, she saved Rowan’s umbilical cord blood when he was born this past spring, which just so happened to be a complete match to rebuild Enzo’s immune system.
The family hopes to be back home this weekend, but it all depends on how Enzo’s bone marrow transplant goes. In just the three weeks since his second diagnosis, Enzo has undergone intensive chemotherapy and steroid treatment.
Finding some joy for the family
However, even Enzo’s steroid reactions that cause rapid weight gain are a source of joy for the family.
“He looks so cute right now,” Alexandra said. “… He’s usually a pretty skinny guy, and right now he’s my chubby bunny.… It’s a sad situation, but then there’s that he looks so adorable, and he doesn’t know it, and he’s just eating everything in sight.”
Luckily for Enzo, food is constantly around the corner as friends, family and community members make deliveries.
Because the Herreras had to spend their Thanksgiving at the hospital, Morris organized the community to deliver DoorDash gift cards, snacks and toys.
“I could see they need help and don’t know how to ask for help,” Morris said. “So that’s when I was just like, ‘Okay, I’m going to bring you lunch. I’m going to bring you this. I’m going to Target, can you think of anything else that you need?'”
The local Buy Nothing group is ready to step in with anything they need to buy or borrow, a Giving Tree was to be put up at Marvin Elementary’s Dec. 5 movie night for gifts, and the Marvin Men’s Group continues to fundraise and buy Enzo toys from his favorite movie, Ghostbusters.
Enzo Herrera before his first day of TK. (Photo courtesy of Alexandra Herrera)Both growing up and meeting in Allied Gardens, Alexander and Alexandra Herrera believed it was the perfect place to raise their own children — and so far they’ve been right.
“It’s so rare to have a child like Enzo,” Alexandra said. “And especially now, a child fighting cancer again at just 4 years old. It’s very lonely, but we don’t feel alone, because we have the support of, obviously, my best friend in the whole world and our parents and our community.”
Enzo’s story could help others
Alexandra hopes that Enzo’s story can help other families in their rare situation.
“I don’t want another parent to be blindsided like we were. Because when we found out that he was sick, we didn’t know what to do,” Alexandra said. “There isn’t any information, and no one likes to talk about childhood cancer, because it’s too sad. But we’re here to say that it’s okay to talk about it, because conversations create knowledge and power and it doesn’t have to always be sad.”
Even two and a half years into Enzo’s journey, the conversations and support from Allied Gardens have only continued to grow.
“It’s also been really helpful for her to hear from other families who’ve gone through similar experiences, to just know that they’re not alone,” Morris said.
If you are interested in helping the Herrera family in their journey, they encourage you to donate to their GoFundMe or send your words of encouragement to Marvin Elementary School.
Hence then, the article about allied gardens rallies behind little boy with cancer for the second time was published today ( ) and is available on Times of San Diego ( Middle East ) The editorial team at PressBee has edited and verified it, and it may have been modified, fully republished, or quoted. You can read and follow the updates of this news or article from its original source.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Allied Gardens rallies behind little boy with cancer — for the second time )
Also on site :
- What the US strike in Venezuela means for gas prices and the largest proven oil reserve on the planet
- Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky and Starmer discuss how to spend billions seized from Abramovich after Chelsea sale
- State of emergency declared: Venezuela mobilizes following US airstrikes