Welcome home: family battling childhood cancer returns to Yuma
Months of living apart to come to an end
YUMA, Ariz. - A Yuma family that has been separated by childhood cancer has finally moved back home. But the battle is far from over.
12-year-old Ayden Garnica was diagnosed with leukemia at the beginning of this year after four weeks of dealing with what seemed like a common cold.
He was a normal kid who loved video games, Lego, jujitsu and hiking with his dad.
“Everything was so normal the day before,” said his dad, Steven Garnica.
If the stress of having a child with cancer wasn’t enough, all the treatment from the moment Ayden was diagnosed, was at Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Three hours away from their home in Yuma.
“My wife and my son Ayden haven’t been in Yuma for very long for the last eight months,” Steven said.
Steven and his wife, Amber, also have a six-year-old son. They decided that Amber would live with Ayden in Phoenix and Steven would take care of everything else.
Just two weeks before Ayden’s diagnosis, Steven had signed a lease for his new gym. He’s now the owner at Crossfit Hidden Valley.
The Garnicas lived in a family friend’s condo near Phoenix Children’s Hospital. Steven called the generosity “God sent."
Although there’s a cancer center in Yuma, it doesn’t treat pediatric patients. That’s why the Garnica’s had to go to Phoenix.
"Phoenix children hospital is one of the best hospitals and had a plan from the moment Ayden got admitted for the next four years,” Steven said.
Steven would drive back and forth to Phoenix, sometimes even twice a week to be with his wife and son. If the drive was any longer, he said they would’ve had to move.
Ayden has now finished his fourth, and most intensive round of treatment and is finally back home in Yuma.
He is now on maintenance treatment and will only have to go to Phoenix once a month, instead of living there full time. His family hopes that by January, he can go back to school.
His final day of treatment is July 2, 2022.
If all goes well, on that day he will get to ring the bell at Phoenix Children’s Hospital indicating he is finally, cancer-free.
