HOUSTON—Nicky Sauter’s journey took him through Texas Children’s Hospital, multiple doses of chemotherapy, and hours spent contemplating if he might live or die. Heady stuff for a 4-year-old boy. But five years later, in remission, he’s using his journey through leukemia to help other pediatric patients.
"Something A-L-L," Nicky said he remembers of the diagnosis right after his 4th birthday in 2004.
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common leukemia in children. According to the National Cancer Institute, less than 5 percent of children with ALL survived for more than five years in the 1960s. Today, about 85 percent of children with ALL survive five years or more.
Nicky and his family credit his remission and his survival to the expert treatment he received at Texas Children’s. But they credit part of his emotional survival to a portable DVD player his family gave him to fight the boredom of long hours in the hospital. He remembers his very first movie was "The Incredibles." He would sit in his stroller, cover the top with blankets, and create his own private movie theater.
"It helped make the days go by faster," he said.
And that gave Nicky’s mom, Missy Sauter, an idea. They started their own foundation and called it Nicky’s Journey. They began raising money to buy portable DVD players and gift certificates for DVD movies to send to Texas Children’s Hospital. They hoped that each time a child was newly diagnosed at the hospital, they could be given a DVD player for free. It’s been a successful journey now for three years.
"We’re right at 300," Missy Sauter said of the number of DVD players they have been able to provide for pediatric patients. "So there have been 300 kids that the day goes a little easier for them because they’ve got something else to do."
"It just really helps all the kids to know that they can focus on something else," said Kate Sauter, Nicky’s older sister.
"Makes them take their mind off if they’re going to live or die," said Nicky. "And takes their mind off the wait ,too."
"I really think he’s just an old soul in a little kid’s body," Nicky’s mom said of the now-9-year-old’s desire to help other children in his same shoes.
And those shoes, by the way, are pink.
His outgoing and gutsy post-cancer personality surfaced on a memorable shopping trip for shoes with his mom. Nicky picked out a pair of pink Converse canvas low-tops. His mom was worried.
"I said, ‘Nick I’m a little concerned somebody at school may tease you,’" she said.
"I’ll say to them," Nicky remembered, "that if I got cancer and lived, I’m tough enough to wear pink shoes."
And last month on a visit to the hospital for a check-up, Nicky strolled into the lobby wearing those pink shoes, shorts and a pink polo shirt. He was also carrying a gift bag with a portable DVD player and two more movies. He’d never had the chance to deliver his gift in person until now.
The recipient, by chance, was a 3 ½-year-old girl recently diagnosed with leukemia. She was wearing pink sandals, had a pink ribbon in her hair and a pink bandage on her left wrist from her treatments that morning. Her name was Nicole Araiza. Her parents call her Nicky, too.
"This is for you," Nicky Sauter said, handing the gift to his compatriot in the fight against childhood cancer. Nicky Araiza, still crying from the trauma of her morning hospital visit, offered a muffled "thank you" with her thumb still in her mouth. But moments later, she was smiling. The gift did exactly what the Sauters hoped it would.
"It feels good to make someone happy and for them to keep being happy with the DVD players," Nicky Sauter said.
"It’s so good to hear success stories, too. Because that’s what we’re hoping for, too," said Nicole’s mom, Wendy Araiza.
"Cancer put me on the right path," Nicky Sauter said,reflecting on how the journey made him more outgoing, more courageous and more willing to reach out to help other people.
‘We really honestly think this has helped mold who he is," Missy Sauter said of Nicky’s successful cancer fight.
And with the continuing help of donations, the Sauters hope to keep molding the lives of other young hospital patients and keep Nicky’s Journey alive.
Click here for more info on Nicky's Journey.
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