Regina Deserves Time: A Little Girl’s Fight for Hope
Regina Yazmín López Valenzuela is five years old.
She loves to smile. She loves to laugh. She is the kind of child whose joy fills a room without effort — the kind of joy only children carry, pure and unguarded. Until recently, Regina’s biggest concerns were toys, playtime, and being close to the people she loves.
Then everything changed.
Regina was diagnosed with one of the rarest and most aggressive forms of cancer known — melanoma in the cerebellum with leptomeningeal spread. It is a diagnosis so uncommon in children that many doctors will never see a case like hers in their lifetime. A diagnosis that arrives without warning. Without mercy. And without clear answers.
In Mexico, her medical team has done everything within their reach. They fought hard for her. They tried every available option. But there are limits — limits of resources, limits of specialized treatment, limits that no family should ever have to face when a child’s life is at stake.
And so Regina’s family reached a heartbreaking crossroads.
The next possible step — the one that could change everything — lies hundreds of miles away, at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. There, specialists who treat the rarest pediatric cancers and access to advanced evaluations and clinical trials may offer Regina something she desperately needs: a fighting chance.
But getting there is not simple.
Every part of this journey is overwhelming — travel across borders, hospital evaluations, advanced testing, and the possibility of entering a clinical trial, all while racing against time that does not slow down for anyone. Regina’s family is doing everything humanly possible to hold things together, but no parent is ever prepared for this kind of battle.
Still, Regina smiles.
Even now.
Even as her world fills with hospital rooms and medical words no child should ever hear, she continues to show a quiet strength that leaves adults in awe. She does not know statistics. She does not know how rare her condition is. She only knows that she is loved — and that she wants to keep living, playing, laughing, and growing.
This is why her story matters.
This is why people need to know her name.
Regina deserves hope. She deserves time. She deserves the chance to access the care that could give her a future beyond this moment. And sometimes, hope begins simply by being seen — by having her story carried from one heart to another.
If this story stopped you…
If it made you feel something…
If you found yourself thinking about her even for a moment…
Then please continue reading her journey and help share her story. Because awareness creates movement, and movement creates possibility.
For Regina, every moment matters.
