Ja’Ziyah(Sassy Jazz) was diagnosed with Synovial Sarcoma( a rare soft tissue cancer ) in October of 2022. This sudden changed stripped Jazz of all of what was normal to her; school, friends, and most importantly her hair but it never stole her personality. Neither did her spirit ever shift. Actually, she was excited when she 1st received this news. I know, I know but all she knew about cancer at that time was that most kids or all for what she knew, were on St. Jude commercial. So, she felt as if this was her shot and chance to model in a commercial.

She immediately began chemotherapy treatment in November of 2022. Every 21 days she would get admitted into the hospital stay for 4 days until March of 2023. During, this time we had met with a couple of ENT surgeons who stated that surgery was impossible due to the tumor being wrapped around her carotid artery, decreasing Jazz’s survival rate or chance of becoming disease free. In fact, one stated that something “miraculous” had to happen in order for the surgery to be performed successfully.

In April of 2023 as we were prepping to start Proton Radiation, we were introduced to an ENT surgeon by the name of Dr. El-Deiry from Emory in Atlanta. After hearing all the cons from two other surgeons we were kind of on the scared side but we decided to take a chance on faith and allowed him to perform this rather risky surgery per his request. Let me just say miracles are happening around us every day! Dr. El-Deiry was able to remove the entire tumor without any major complications or side effects on April 10th 2023.

In June of 2023 Jazz began her Proton Radiation at Emory. She completed 33 rounds of treatment. It was an easy breezy, bitter-sweet, successful process! Jazz went into complete remission and rang the bell in September of 2023 marking the end of her cancer journey. She was finally free to be her complete self again; Or so we thought.

Unfortunately, in February of 2024, her scans reflected something very disturbing and alarming. There were multiple nodules scattered throughout both lungs. In April of 2024, Jazz had a biopsy of the lung completed confirming that the cancer had returned and spread to both lungs. Our girl relapsed; worse news ever! Jazz is currently doing chemotherapy every 21 days for 7 days.

Please continue to keep her, her family, doctors, supporters, and donors in your prayers.