-Using it by the sink or something.
-Maybe.
Oh, it could be, like, a soap holder.
-Yeah.
[ Indistinct talking ]
-So I was very curious,
like, when the nurse was, like, taking my blood,
and I was like, "Why are you taking my blood?
What tests are you doing? What are you looking for?
How does it work? How do the tests work?"
I thought that was really cool.
So then I started asking more questions,
and that's kind of how my interest started.
My name is Gabby Salinas --
well, Gabriela Salinas.
I currently work at the hospital on the malaria project,
and our efforts are towards discovering new treatments.
Malaria's the number-one single killer
in the world of pediatrics.
-Yeah, she was showing me her schedule,
and all these classes were, like, all these hard classes,
and then she had to go to work and then lab.
The days she ate breakfast, she didn't each lunch.
The days she ate lunch, she didn't eat breakfast.
This is a crazy woman.
I'm originally from Bolivia, and I have a twin brother,
and we were always getting into trouble.
-Terrible.
-She dared me to jump out of the roof.
You know, I got stitches.
I got kicked out of kindergarten.
-When I was 7, we were always getting scrapes
and, you know, cuts and just bumps and bruises.
-My dad was in the Air Force,
so we were riding our bikes where the planes land.
-I was riding on skates,
and we had a rope tied from the bike and he was pulling me.
-My dad told us not to do that. Of course, we had to do it.
And she fell and she cut her knee up.
-This fall felt different,
and I started having pain in my leg,
and then it got progressively worse.
My mobility got worse. I lost my ability to walk.
-My dad flies up to New York with my sister,
'cause my aunt lived there.
-And in New York, they diagnosed me with Ewing's sarcoma.
-It's a bone cancer in her back.
-And they said without treatment
that I only had a few weeks to live.
And we needed $250,000 for the treatment.
At that moment, my mom said
that she had never felt so hopeless in her life.
She's like, "I can't believe my child is gonna die,
not because a treatment doesn't exist,
but because I can't afford the treatment."
-My dad calls his sister and tells them, you know,
what's going on.
-She was at work.
A reporter from the New York Daily News
was there and asked her why she was upset,
and he wrote up the story as to what was happening.
-The next day, that story was front page.
-And Marlo Thomas, who's the daughter of Danny Thomas,
who founded the hospital at St. Jude, contacted us and said,
"I have a place that you can go to,
and you will not receive a single bill."
So from Bolivia to New York to Memphis, Tennessee.
-Here we go.
This is it. It's done.
-I don't -- How does this work? -What?
You think you're so cool with your big tower?
-Monopoly. -It's gonna fall.
-They are such a strong family
that are a role model for how you confront adversity.
I've known Gabby about 18 years now --
gone through another diagnosis of cancer,
been with her family through some other trauma,
an accident that the family had.
-I was only 8 when the accident happened.
-We went to New York just to get out of the hospital, 'cause,
you know, that year, we were, like, living at the hospital.
And then on the way back, yeah, we got in a car accident.
-Our car flipped.
We went from one side of the interstate
to the other side of the interstate,
and my dad and my sister were killed in the accident,
and my mom was paralyzed.
-Being a kid and thinking my worst nightmare just came true.
-My name is Danny Thomas Omar Salinas.
I know the story pretty well, but yeah.
"Cancer Girl Tried to Revive Her Dad."
"The Bolivian girl whose battle with cancer
captured New York's heart last year,
ignoring her shattered right hand, family members
said Gabriela Salinas managed to climb out of the wreckage
of her family's car and crawl to her dad.
Her cries of, 'Daddy, Daddy,'
were met only by a comforting smile
that slowly spread across her father's face,
a silent goodbye from the man
who loved her more than life itself."
-I definitely get my discipline from him.
We did so much physical therapy, 'cause I wanted to walk so bad,
and he's like, "You're gonna walk again."
I was like, "Okay."
And there's times where I was like --
I didn't want to do the physical therapy, but he would push me,
and that's what I needed at that moment.
That same mind-set that has been with me all the way through.
It's my way of carrying his memory.
The tumor that I had in my back
did a lot of damage to my left leg,
so I have to wear it to walk better.
But I don't wear it when I wear cute shoes, though.
'Cause it doesn't fit into cute shoes.
Girls suffer a lot for cute shoes.
-Nearly three years.
-I have to say, okay, I've had two types of radiation.
I've had surgery, and I've had chemo.
-I can tell you that. -That makes you win again.
-Winning. You're winning.
-My inspiration's my mom.
She doesn't let anything get her down
and just keeps pushing through everything.
Really?
Aww.
Well, I think y'all are very sweet.
[ Laughter ]
-I've never given Gabby something to do
that she didn't get done.
It didn't matter to her what needed to happen,
how hard she had to work, what she had to learn.
You know, there are not a whole lot
of people in the world who push that hard
on everything they do.
-I just really love what I do,
and I know that what I do
makes a difference further down the road.
I think that's one of the reasons
why I'm so passionate about it,
and I know that the science at St. Jude
is moving faster than anywhere else,
and I kind of want to be involved in that.
-Nothing gets in Gabby's way.
If there's any barrier, she goes around it, over it,
whatever she needs to do.
She is one determined young woman.
-Well, cancer didn't stop her.
It tried. You know, it got close.
You know, it got her, you know, not walking.
-In the midst of tragedy, there is always hope,
and you should never give up.
My sister, she always seems to think, like, "This is nothing.
I'm gonna get through it."
-Watch. It's gonna fall on the first.
I look up to her as my hero.
I mean, like, if I had someone I wanted to be like,
it'd be Gabby.
-My mom said,
"Don't let anything or anyone take away your happiness."
I think I'm like a well-built house.
I'm strong, but being strong doesn't make any storm weak.
Going through cancer, I was still upset.
Still went through the chemo.
Didn't feel like doing it sometimes,
but I knew that I was gonna get through it
and then I was gonna be fine.