The Natalie Villanueva Fund

My daughter Natalie Villanueva, the journey began in November of 2019, at 18 years old. She was a senior in high school and a rugby player. She started getting pain in her left leg, we thought it was from rugby, so we didn’t think anything of it. But she kept complaining about the pain until finally we took her to get an x-ray, which they didn’t see anything. So we kept going with our days, but the pain kept getting worse. So I finally took her back a couple of weeks later and told them that I wanted them to do an MRI. The hospital called us back and said they needed to see us right away the next day. I felt something was wrong. So when they told us it was cancer, we couldn’t believe it.

The next step was a biopsy, so on November 25, 2019, we found out that it was osteosarcoma bone cancer. That’s the day our life changed forever. My daughter started her chemo in December 2019 and then on March 3 2020 surgery to remove the tumor from her left leg tibia was successful. They removed the whole tumor and replaced it with titanium. She continued chemo and rang the bell on July 27, 2020, and was cancer-free. She did physical therapy for her leg and was able to walk on her own in no time, she was getting her life back together including ours. It was a Victory until a 3-month scan check-up.

She relapsed, it metastasizes to her lungs. It was a 5 cm tumor, got removed, and did another treatment of chemo. In April of 2021, she rang the bell and, once again, was cancer-free. 3 months later scans showed tumors in the lungs and this time they couldn’t be removed. So she started another round of chemo and chemo pills at home she did that for about a year. Chemo stopped working and started immunotherapy, which kept the tumors stable throughout her whole journey she also did radiation, ablations, and protons, but it just kept coming back. My daughter fought for 3 1/2 years until she took her last breath from this horrible disease on June 4, 2023, at 21 years old.

My daughter fought and never complained. She never felt sorry for herself, and still talked about the future. She was always positive. Natalie was a loving and caring person. She always wore her heart on her sleeve. She forgave and put other people before herself. My daughter was creative and talented, she loved art, painting, and building things, and she loved to travel. She was always good with her hands. She was good at everything that she put her mind to. She was her own person, she had her own style and was very unique, never a follower. My daughter loved her life and she wasn’t ready to give up, she wanted to live, most of all she loved her parents her boyfriend, Miguel, and her dog Drago was her son lol. And she loved her family.

I would always say I don’t know why this happened to you my love, why you? and she would say, Mom, I’m glad it happened to me and that no one else because I’m strong and I’m able to handle it and I’ll be able to get through it. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone else. My Natalie was strong, brave, and courageous. I miss my daughter every day, her face, her smile, her laugh, her eyes, her voice I miss holding her hand just doing everything me and her would do. It’s hard for me to accept that she’s gone. Seeing my daughter suffer was the hardest thing that her boyfriend, Miguel, her dad and I ever had to go through.

I want to honor my daughter’s memory and legacy. I want people to remember her name. They need better treatments for our children and more funding for new treatments. It’s not fair what our kids are going through.

Quote: Natalie, my daughter, is my Hero, my Warrior. Who fought till the very end.

"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles."

-Christopher Reeves

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