Noah has always been a very creative and articulated child. Before getting diagnosed he was full of energy. He loved his collections of music, movies and more. Noah would hold conversations with both children and adults and always had Interesting topics to speak about. Noah continued to get cold and flu-like symptoms regularly. Fevers, fatigue and he would bruise very easily. His pediatrician would just brush our concerns under a rug and say we were first time parents concerned for no reason. He was severely anemic and stopped being able to walk due to swelling in his knee. Noah was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) at only 1 year old. His diagnosis affected his life as he was stripped of his childhood. He would spend months out of the year in the hospital. As his mom, I stopped working and stood by his side every step of the way to care for him, as my husband had to go to work to pay our bills that did not stop coming in every month. We would have to ask for extensions for our rent and would fall behind on our bills. It was a difficult road, but we are happy to celebrate his strength and resilience throughout this whole journey. We were blessed to have celebrated his 9 year post transplant birthday this past July.  

-Suzy Najarro, mother