Local teen beats cancer, wants to help others beat it

Finding out he had cancer was hard for 15-year-old Alex Valenzuela, barely a freshman in high school.

“I was shocked. I just broke down crying because I couldn’t believe it. I never thought it would be me, that I would have to go through with this,” Valenzuela said.

He remembered that day at the hospital.

“My whole family was on the couches in the room. And then my parents came in and I saw a look on their face. And I was like, oh, no, what’s wrong? So they told me that, Alex, you have leukemia. And then I couldn’t believe it. I was shocked and then my heart dropped. And then my mom came towards me because she knew I was going to cry, and I started to cry in her arms,” Valenzuela said.

Family, friends and nurses helped him to fight it.

“They helped me out by being positive. They pushed me to say that I can do it, and they made me motivated,” Valenzuela said.

It was hard road.

“The chemotherapies were sometimes hard. I’d throw up. I lost a lot of weight. It was really hard,” Valenzuela said.

He wanted to beat it.

“I had to do this for others so I could be a living testimony, so I could help other kids and show them that they can do it, that they can fight it. When my parents were sad, I would bring them up and be like, I can do this. You don’t have to be sad. I’m going to fight it,” Valenzuela said.

That was 3 years ago. Today the cancer is gone. And he wants to inspire others to fight, as well.

“Never being depressed, never being sad, you just always have to keep your head up high and just fight,” Valenzuela said.

The family of Alex Valenzuela is one of six locally who will benefit from the dancing competition “Bailando por un Sueno” (Dancing for a Dream) in October.

For more information, you can go to their Facebook page Dancing for a Dream.

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