Ana Orozco

Ana Orozco has made a positive influence on the life of a child through the Chemo Pal Mentor program for the Children's Cancer Association (CCA). Ana's Spanish-speaking skills are valuable to the program. It allows us to reach out to families in the Spanish-speaking community that would otherwise be missed.

As a Pediatric Chemo Pal Mentor, Ana helps children and teens break through the isolation, chaos and loneliness of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. This volunteer program's purpose is to provide a supportive relationship, ensuring that each child maintains self-esteem and confidence throughout the emotionally isolating and physically difficult cancer treatment. She provides support and guidance through dependable visits in the midst of the battle against cancer. She visits hospitals, clinic, and homes in order to play games, take walks, read, do art projects or share hobbies with the child or teen that she has been placed with.

Ana is currently matched with 17 year old Estefania. Estefania calls Ana her "mom" and considers her part of the family. She loves Ana's daughters, and refers to them as her sisters. They play Monopoly, card games, and just talk. Every other Sunday night, Ana meets Estefania for dinner, a movie or some other activity. Estefania shares her feelings and her thoughts about life.

Last November, through conversations and motivation, Ana was able to convince Estefania to return to school after quite some time away.

Estafania had lost her apartment after her diagnosis and Ana pulled together her friends and family to help Estafania to find a place and provided her with furniture, kitchen supplies, electronics, gift cards, and everything that she needed to make her new place a real home. Ana has also volunteered with many different CCA events as well as translating all of the marketing materials into Spanish.