Corpus Christi (KIII News) — You see the public service announcements all the time: children who have cancer and need your help. While it may seem like kid cancer is everywhere it's pretty rare.
Logan Newkirk Martinez loves Star Wars you can find him playing with lightsabers any day of the week.
"Running around, jumping having a good time. I wasn't jumping. Okay," grandmother Carla Sue Newkirk said.
At five years old Martinez is facing a very real and life-threatening battle no child should ever have to go through -- stage four kidney cancer.
"We just tell him that the radiation is the good guys have guns, and they are shooting and trying to kill the bad guys, and the chemo is just the same thing," Newkirk said. "He doesn't know that he's sick. You know. He knows. We tell him that he's sick, but he doesn't understand you know what we know."
Even after surgery, cancer has now spread to Martinez' lungs and lymph nodes.
"There wasn't any other thing to do except for do more tests and find out where we are gonna go after that," Newkirk said.
Martinez' story is heartbreaking, but he is just one of around 15,000 kids in the U.S. that were diagnosed with cancer in 2018.
According to medical director Dr. Nkechi Mba, survival rates for cancer have gone up from 10 percent in the 1950's to almost 80 percent.
Driscoll Children's Hospital is one of 200 hospitals a part of the children oncology group conducting groundbreaking research and clinical trials.
"So we are kind of very happy from where we are, but we all recognize that the only reason we've gotten to where we are is because of clinical research," Mba said.
The problem lies in the testing process Mba said new drugs are tried and investigated in adults first before they even get to children.
"We don't get enough attention from the pharmaceutical industry," Mba said. "Cancer is relatively not as common in children as it is in adults."
The National Pediatric Cancer Foundation said only four percent of government cancer research goes to funding childhood cancer.
"My son is worth more than four percent," Jennifer Haynes said.
Haynes' son Trenton was only 11-months old when he was diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma.
"He said the words I'll never forget. He said I think your son has cancer," Haynes said.
Doctors found a tumor on Trenton's stomach, and cancer quickly spread to his lymph nodes in his neck and bone marrow.
"They would give you beads for any pokes if you receive blood, scans, nights that you stay in the hospital," Haynes said.
In a year Trenton had over 700 hundred beads to remind him of everything he's been through.
Almost a year later when thing seemed to look up for Trenton, there was terrible news.
"The cancer was back. Also, this time it was in his brain. On his brain stem so it was inoperable and he passed less than 24 hours later," Haynes said.
According to Haynes, children have so much more life to live, and each one is worth saving.
"A time when they should be thinking about fighting over toys to over fighting for their life," Mba said.
Oncologists at Driscoll are trying to figure out ways to rescue healthy cells and attack ones with cancer. With the kind of research and dedication gives families the hope they need
"Are genetic signatures within cancer cells, and if we target those genetic signatures we can treat cancer without all of the side effects," Mba said.
At first glance at a bell may be nothing to the average person but to the kids, it symbolizes the end of treatment and the beginning of a new life.
"It will seem like days are going to break you. However, they aren't. Keep smiling, Keep fighting. Keep pushing," Haynes said.
Stay connected with 3News for the latest news, sports, and weather. Download the KIII-TV 3News app now.
Have an idea for a story? Send news tips to news@kiiitv.com, and visit us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!