Allied Gardens rallies behind little boy with cancer — for the second time
Just four months after being declared cancer-free -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 society especially the folks at Enzo s transitional kindergarten school Marvin Elementary have done all they can to assistance the Herrera family His teachers love him so much commented 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 initiatives Alexandra is now 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 program clinical bills Enzo s immune system is right now at an all-time low which requires him to keep a small circle with minimal visitors However this is no deterrent for Enzo s multiple classroom friends who stand outside his window wave and FaceTime him from there Enzo is the sweetest little boy in the world announced 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 assessment in May 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 strength around everyone Morris explained 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 unveiled out that he d relapsed we were sad for a second and then we stated Nope we just got to keep moving forward We just have to keep going Alexandra declared Because he deserves nothing but the best nothing but positivity and good vibes and everything else Enzo had just a chance of relapsing after he rang the bell to celebrate remission in July but Alexandra s motherly instincts described 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 determination Enzo has undergone intensive chemotherapy and steroid medication Finding several elation for the family However even Enzo s steroid reactions that cause rapid weight gain are a source of elation for the family He looks so cute right now Alexandra noted 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 society members make deliveries Because the Herreras had to spend their Thanksgiving at the hospital Morris organized the neighborhood to deliver DoorDash gift cards snacks and toys I could see they need help and don t know how to ask for help Morris declared 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 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 maintained 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 stated And especially now a child fighting cancer again at just years old It s very lonely but we don t feel alone because we have the backing of obviously my best friend in the whole world and our parents and our neighborhood 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 unveiled out that he was sick we didn t know what to do Alexandra reported 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 inevitably be sad Even two and a half years into Enzo s journey the conversations and promotion 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 noted 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
