Three years ago, Stacey Johnson and her son, Aaron Espinoza, were at a community event focused on helping fight cancer - a topic that hit close to home. In March of 2025, Stacey lost her 16-year-old son, Aaron, to a rare soft tissue cancer. Now, she is turning her grief into purpose.
Stacey heard the words no parent wants to hear when her son was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma — a rare type of soft tissue cancer.
"In actually started in May of 2022. He came home one day with a bump in his gums. We thought made a cyst or something like that," Stacey said.
Days later, the, then, 13-year-old went to school and came back with a bump on his face the size of a golf ball.
"When I finally took him to Driscoll, by then, it was already, taken over his whole face. Very harsh, very fast, very rare,"Stacey said.
The news was devastating for their family.
According to the National Cancer Institute, the cancer develops from muscle cells. This cancer affects more than 2 percent of children 14 and younger, and just over 1 percent of teens between 15 and 19.
"Very low percentile of survival. And that freaked me out. And he's calm as can be. It's like how are you calm? How am I not calm but we just had to go one day at a time, one prayer at a time," Stacey said.
October 2024, doctors told the family there was nothing more they could do.
"And last October is when he said, 'We have nothing else for you to do. Just go live your life.' Aaron didn't get mad at all. I'm screaming," Stacey said.
Sadly, shortly after his 16th birthday, Aaron lost his battle.Stacey said saying goodbye to her son was the hardest day of her life.
"But I really hope he's remembered for being a true believer. That he was going to be okay, And at peace," Stacey said.
The mother of three has been vocal about her son's journey during community events, is making cups and shirts to give away in his Aaron's honor, and helping other families dealing with childhood cancer.
She is writing a book on her son's journey to help encourage others and is planning to memorialize Aaron with a scholarship to his classmates next graduation year.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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