FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - A brave little girl now has reasons to smile after defeating a debilitating disease.
Her family was not expecting to learn their baby girl had cancer when she was only 2 years old, but thanks to some South Florida specialists, she was finally able to conquer cancer.
“It was hard to beat cancer,” Vivienne said.
But that’s exactly what little Vivienne did thanks to the Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital at Broward Health.
The brave second grader was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia back in 2015.
Over the next two and half years, she and her family lived at the hospital while she underwent chemotherapy and other treatments to fight the cancer.
“It was definitely very isolating,” said Vivienne’s mother Sarah Salvatoriello. “We couldn’t hang out with friends, Vivienne couldn’t spend time with other children because of her low immune system, so there were a lot of times that were spent at home with us just as a family.”
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hopes will help shine a light on the different cancers that impact more than 15,000 children across the United States each year.
“Leukemia, in particular, and other childhood cancers can come out of nowhere,” Salvatoriella said. “A lot of the symptoms and a lot of the warning signs leading up to that are similar to the same kind of things that you find just in childhood illness, you know? Is it a cold? Is it the flu? Did they break their leg? So knowing how to ask the right questions is one of the things, maybe, I would have wanted to know at that time.”
It’s also a time to celebrate the many success stories of children who beat the disease.
“This is not just something for one month. This is something that can, it will definitely affect every day of their lives,” said Dr. Hector Rodriguez-Cortez of Salah Foundation Children’s Hospital. “Therefore, we have to be very supportive of them and help them at any level.”
Vivienne shared her advice to others who may be going through the same thing.
“I just want to say to the people that have cancer that they can do this, and they can get through it,” she said.
Vivienne has been in remission since 2017 and said she loves spending her time playing with her little brother.
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