September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, a time set aside to recognize the roughly 300 children and teens diagnosed with cancer each week in the United States.
Thanks to greater awareness, increased funding and advances in research, survival rates are improving – but for one South Florida family, the fight against childhood cancer has become a battle they’ve had to face three different times.
From the field to fighting cancer
Kaylee Rodriguez is a softball star turned survivor.
“I didn’t know if I was ever going to step foot on the field again,” she said, recounting her journey.
Kaylee was going into her junior year at the University of Michigan when she started feeling pain in her hip. Her softball coaches and trainers sent her to get checked out, and she was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer in children and young adults.
“My first words were actually ‘not again,'” she said. “My brother was not even a year into his remission when I knew that I’d have to end up telling my mom to put her life on hold again.”
Kaylee’s brother Keanu was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2016. Her other brother Kassem had a skin tumor in 2022 while Kaylee was in the midst of her own health battle.
A mother’s strength and support
Kaylee said their mother, Ketty Rodriguez Evora, was their rock through each diagnosis.
“It’s crazy the strength that comes out when they need you, a strength you never knew you had,” Ketty said. “You dig deep.”
“She’s the strongest woman I know,” Kaylee said. “She had no doubt in her mind that it was just going to be a matter of just taking time off, doing what I need to do to get back on track, and she was going to be there for me throughout every single part of it.”
The family turned to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital for care and pediatric oncologist Dr. Guillermo De Angulo.
“I still remember the first time the mother texted me when she was in Michigan with the results,” Dr. De Angulo said. “And my first thing was like, ‘No, there’s no way.’ I mean, I already went through this.”
“I was able to text Dr. De Angulo and he gave me peace of mind,” Kaylee’s mother said. “He’s like, ‘Don’t worry about it.'”
A new beginning and giving back
After a year of treatment, Kaylee rang the bell in August 2023. She eventually went back to Michigan and graduated with a sports management degree.
While her softball career looks different now, she has embraced coaching rather than playing. She hopes to be a beacon of hope for others.
“It’s OK to embrace reinventing yourself and starting from scratch,” Kaylee said. “I used to think that I was going to be in a much different spot at 23 and that my life was going to look much differently, but honestly my life couldn’t be any more beautiful and blessed than what it is right now.”
Hospital, foundation partner for pediatric cancer awareness
On Saturday, Sept. 27, Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, in partnership with the Mystic Force Foundation, will host the Gold Ribbon Parade for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
Nicklaus Children’s Hospital will also be receiving $30 million over the next five years for cancer research from the state of Florida as part of an effort to help find a cure.
