Who could forget this frightened Texas teen’s face.
Six weeks ago, thousands of you prayed for 14-year-old Victoria Pérez after a headache on her last day of 8th grade led doctors to discover a cancerous brain tumor.
Today, her aunt reached back out to me.
And my heart sank reading her message.
Victoria and her parents traveled from the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas to MD Anderson in Houston on Monday believing they were there to prepare for radiation treatments.
They thought they would be driving home to Edinburg that evening.
Then the phone rang.
Doctors urgently asked them to return first thing Tuesday morning because they had important news.
“The moment we received that call, our hearts sank,” Victoria’s aunt Maricela told me.
This morning, the family learned why.
According to Maricela, in the two months since Victoria underwent brain surgery in Corpus Christi, the portion of the tumor surgeons could not safely remove has grown again.
Doctors told the family Victoria needs another brain surgery immediately.
And then came another devastating blow.
Maricela says cancer cells have now been found on Victoria’s spine, and doctors told the family they are dealing with a very aggressive cancer.
Six weeks ago, this family was preparing for a difficult fight.
Now, as her aunt put it, “it feels like we have been taken back to the beginning.”
And remember who is standing beside this 14-year-old girl.
Victoria is an only child. Her mother, Ruth, has been blind since birth. Her father, Josué, is fighting a tumor in his own throat.
They are now hundreds of miles from home, facing another brain surgery and an even more difficult battle for their daughter.
This family asked for prayers the first time I shared Victoria with you.
Now, they need them more than ever.
Please come together to pray for Victoria.
Pray for wisdom for the doctors preparing to operate on her again.
Pray for strength for Ruth and Josué as they absorb news no parents ever want to hear.
And please remind this 14-year-old girl that an army of people who prayed for her six weeks ago has not forgotten her.
We’re still here, Victoria. Keep fighting.
