Childhood Cancer Warrior: Luis

As told by his mother

Luis Ornelas is a teenager born and raised in Odessa, TX. Before his cancer diagnosis, Luis was enjoying the beginning of his freshman year at Permian High School. Football was his passion as a starting lineman on the Permian football team. His teammates, family and friends know him as “SweetLou”.

In February 2022, at the age of 15, Luis suddenly developed lumps on his head and neck. The lumps grew rapidly and on March 23, 2022, Luis was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia. Upon his diagnosis, he was medically rushed to MD Anderson in Houston. His oncologist said, “He is living hour by hour, he needs medical attention fast”. Luis had tumors in his kidneys, stomach, and chest and was 60% cancer filtrated. His mother packed a bag for a week’s long worth of belongings and headed to Houston. Life had other plans and little did they know they wouldn’t return home for an entire year.

Luis and mom were isolated and together they began to fight an aggressive cancer battle. While going through treatment, Luis suffered from multiple side effects of chemotherapy and spent weeks at a time hospitalized.

On top of his cancer fight, he battled with seizures, blood clots, dialysis, transfusions, pancreatitis and covid. After a year of continuously fighting, Luis has entered his “maintenance phase” of treatment and has happily returned home! He travels to Houston for ongoing treatments and with God’s grace he will complete his treatment in August 2024.

Luis never lost hope and continues to keep a positive mindset through his cancer journey. He is a healthy and strong 16-year-old who said, “It never crossed my mind that cancer would beat me.”

He is SWEET LOU STRONG!