St. Jude’s Grit Henderson celebrates ‘No More Chemo Party’ with NFL
12 May 2023
TOPEKA (KSNT) – Beau Quintana is the son of Elizabeth and Alex Quintana. Like most babies, he came into the world happy and without a care in the world while living life to the fullest. Then, a year and a half later, Beau and his parents got the news that no one wants to hear.
“He was your normal toddler, rambunctious little guy,” Elizabeth Quintana said. “Around about 18 months of age we started noticing some funky stuff going on with Beau. Then in March of 2019, we took him to a specialist and we ended up finding out that he had a brain tumor the size of an orange.”
That’s when Beau’s journey with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and pediatric brain cancer started. While they were scared, Elizabeth and Alex knew once they walked through the doors of St. Jude they were at the right place.
“Stressful to say the least, but that was our hope,” Quintana said. “From the minute we got there we had a room available. We didn’t have to worry about where we were gonna go when we got to Memphis. You walk through those hospital doors, you don’t have to deal with the insurance companies. They take all of that completely off of your shoulders.”
Although Beau ended up dying from his cancer in September of 2021, Quintana said he didn’t lose his fight because Beau was a piece in St. Jude’s fight to help bring an end to cancer.
“They aren’t going to stop until they find a cure for cancer,” Quintana said. “And they know other children have to go through that or lose their life to such a terrible disease. I like to think that he [Beau] was part of their mission as well as helping children with ATRT (atypical teratoid rhabdoid tumor) and helping their research get a little further, a little more advanced.”
For families out there who might be going through the same thing Beau and his family went through and don’t know what to do, or where to go, Quintana said to take the leap of faith and choose St. Jude.
“From being there for the six months that we were, seeing everything that those doctors, nurses, caretakers, anybody, even the environmental services coming to clean your rooms, they are there for one mission and one mission only,” Quintana said. “And it’s to help those babies and those kids who are in that big fight.”
Today, the Quintana’s keep Beau’s legacy alive through the Beau’s Brigade Foundation where they help raise money and push for more kids like him to get the help they need.