Family Seeks Help Saving Eight-Year-Old with Brain Cancer

Eight-year-old Jeremiah during happier times.

An eight-year-old child is clinging to life as his mother desperately seeks help paying for expert medical care to treat his advanced brain cancer.

Formerly of Haverhill and now living in Manchester, N.H., Jeremiah has been battling a rare form of brain cancer for a year and three months. A recent surge of the cancer’s growth has left him blind and unable to speak.

Another child, Jarisma, died 10 years ago after being stricken with bone cancer.

Another child, Jarisma, died 10 years ago after being stricken with bone cancer.

It is a crisis altogether too familiar for mother Elicia Cruzita Solis, whose 11-year-old daughter Jarisma succumbed to bone cancer 10 years ago this past May. Solis, herself, is also a cancer survivor, being diagnosed with what was thought to be a terminal case when she was only 24. She was stricken again in 2015 with breast cancer and then gastric cancer.

“They truly need a miracle right now,” Nancy Jones, a childhood friend of Solis, told WHAV. “All Massachusetts hospitals have exhausted treatments for him, and she is trying to find one to use some sort of experimental drug to save his life. That is their only hope,” said Jones, who met Solis while they both were in kindergarten at Tilton School. She said treatments may be available in Florida and California. Meanwhile, Solis and her husband Jerry are calling every neurologist in the country, asking to try something to save Jeremiah.

“I would do anything to not let her go through this again,” Jones said. Jarisma is buried at St. James Cemetery, Haverhill. “The last thing she should be worrying about is money.”

The family has established an online account at GoFundMe to accept donations.

When Solis was stricken again with cancer in 2015, it was Jeremiah who reassured her.

“Jeremiah would always kiss her and remind her that all will be okay. Elicia once again overcame it and Jeremiah was right, everything was okay,” said Solis’ nephew.

Jeremiah celebrated his eighth birthday this past July 19.

One thought on “Family Seeks Help Saving Eight-Year-Old with Brain Cancer

  1. Jeremiah, you have a team doing all we can to help you Sweetie. Cruza, we are all here for you. ♡ Pray for this family, their faith gets them through the hard days.