Azaiah Lopez

Azaiah is 13 years old and currently receiving treatment from his bone marrow transplant that he received in February 2025. He comes from a large family with a little brother and 4 sisters ages 4-15. He is a super smart and a loving young man.

Azaiah was first diagnosed with multi-phenotype leukemia on November 12, 2021 at the age of 9. This is a rare case in which he has both ALL Leukemia and AML Leukemia blasts that rapidly took over the healthy cells in his body. After further testing, the doctors found that he also had PH+ chromosome which is a protein that wraps the cancer cells and causes them to be harder to penetrate and duplicate faster. Because of this he was required to undergo 2 years of intense chemotherapy.

After those 2 years, Azaiah went into complete remission from his cancer. He started to live a normal life and enjoy the things most kids are able to enjoy at his age. Shortly before his 1 year mark of remission, Azaiah started experiencing extreme headaches and back pain.

On October 9th, 2025 testing revealed his cancer had returned but this time it was in his brain and spinal fluid. He began treatment again but this time the doctors wanted to seek out the treatment of a bone marrow transplant as this is his best option to rid his body of the cancer with hopes it wouldn’t return.

The conditions surrounding his cancer makes his probability of reoccurrence high and the success rate lower each time it returns. Luckily with having multiple siblings we were able to find a complete match with his 14 year old sister who was more than willing to donate to save her brother!

On February 11, 2025 Azaiah received his transplant and began the process of recovering over the next year. In order to ensure he receives the best care possible, Azaiah is required to stay about 2 hours from home, close to Children’s Hospital in Birmingham AL. This is difficult for him and his family, who have to constantly go back and forth. Through all of this, Azaiah remains brave and continues to smile. He and his family continue to advocate for him and other families going through similar situations.