With minimal help from her mother, Nicollette walks back to her patient room from the playroom at Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center (JJCCC) at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach where she was making arts and crafts. In her hand, she has a hat she decorated with stickers and gems, and a flag she made which she waves back and forth. The room she returns to has been her home away from home, to her and her mother, for the past three months.

The hospital room wasn’t always their home. Prior to October of 2010, Nicollette lived in Torrance, where she attended kindergarten. She was an intelligent, bright young girl who loved ballet, horses and books.

During kindergarten, Nicollette suddenly began vomiting everyday for nearly a week. Her mother took her to the pediatrician where she was diagnosed with acid reflux and was given a prescription for it. However, relief from her stomach condition was short lived. Nicollette’s family became even more concerned when she began to suffer from painful headaches.

After another visit to the hospital, her doctor instructed her to get an MRI scan. What they discovered would take Nicollette down a tumultuous road that they could only hope her strength and perseverance could surpass. Nicollette was diagnosed with a brain tumor.

She was referred to the Jonathan Jaques Children’s Cancer Center at Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, where she began her care. Pediatric oncologists and pediatric surgeons consulted on her case and knew she needed surgery to remove the tumor immediately.

Unfortunately when brain tumors are removed, one possible side effect is a stroke. During the surgery, Nicollette suffered a stroke. Luckily, Miller Children’s also has the only Pediatric Stroke Center in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

After her stroke, Nicollette lost the ability to speak and walk. She had to use a wheelchair to get around in. While she was working toward recovery from her stroke, she was still receiving intense chemotherapy treatments.

From the time Nicollette saw the wheelchair she repeatedly told her mother that she wanted to stand on her own. She was extremely determined and knew she would walk again.

After a lot of hard work and focus, she regained freedom to put one foot in front of the other on her own. Just a month and a half later, she got up out of her wheelchair and never looked back.

Nicollette is currently homeschooled, but when she needs hospitalization for another round of chemotherapy or “maintenance checks,” she gets visits from a hospital teacher so she doesn’t get behind. That’s the benefit of a full-service children’s hospital so close to home. She has access to a teacher through the Child Life Program, which provides patients with individualized programs to experience normal daily childhood activities. In addition to walking, she also is speaking again. Physical therapy and occupational therapy at Miller Children’s has helped in Nicollette’s amazing feat.

Nicollette is doing well, she is scheduled to have three more cycles of chemotherapy and should be finished by early 2012. She plans to return to school, once she is both physically and emotionally ready. The JJCCC school reintegration team will be standing by when she’s ready to help do neuropsychology testing and prepare her for the transition back.

One day, she hopes to become an astronaut and at this rate it seems she can reach the stars. Nicollette is a go-getter who, against all odds, has set her goals high and is determined to achieve success, now and in the future – all at the age of 6.