Jazmin

Age: 9
Hometown: Toppenish, WA
Diagnosis: Wilm's tumor 

EVERYBODY WANTS to be “home for the holidays.” It’s a sentiment that elicits tears and tender songs.

But when Jazmin, a wise and assured 9-year-old, had the chance to finally do just that last December, her response was direct, “Thanks but no thanks.”

Instead, she craved one more Christmas at her “home-away-from-home” – the Seattle Ronald McDonald House, or “the House” as she and others affectionately call it. It’s the place where she had already spent three other Christmases and nearly half of her life while battling cancer.

It’s the place she was living with her parents Patricia and Carlos when doctors told the family – not once, not twice but three times – that there was nothing they could do for Jazmin. It was time for the family to return home to Toppenish, Wash. Time to make Jazmin comfortable. Time to say goodbye.

And it’s also where she was living when late last year doctors informed the family that the new chemotherapy study she’d been put on –the one doctors called their final effort – was working. Her tumors were shrinking. Eventually, her cancer was … gone.

"I don't know what it is," said Dr. Blythe Thomson of Seattle Children’s, "but I'm not going to question it.”

In a front-page, Christmas Eve story chronicling Jazmin’s amazing journey, Thompson also told the Times that Jazmin was the only child of 20 still in the study after a year.

Some call it “magic.” Others go as far as “miracle.”

Only a few things are certain: Shortly after one last fun Christmas at the House, Jazmin and her family moved into their own home, an apartment in Federal Way, near where her Dad found work. Jazmin will continue periodic checkups, and concerns about a return of her cancer won’t fade for awhile yet.

Reflecting on their experience, Jazmin and her family say they could not have persevered through such an extremely difficult time without the House – and all of the volunteers who help make it such a warm and supportive place.

“We will be grateful to everyone at the House for the rest of our lives,” says Carlos. “What people do there is amazing; I can’t even describe how appreciative we are. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.”

Meet Jazmin and her family in this special video presentation.