The Journal

Issue date: 12/4/08 Section: Lifestyle

Do miracles really exist? Rachel Lozano likes to think so. She said she considers her own life to be a miracle. Lozano, 25, beat overwhelming odds against her when she survived her third relapse of a rare form of cancer known as Askin’s Tumor. She was honored by Glamour magazine as the winner of the 2008 Woman of Your Year award.
Lozano’s friend, Kelly Ethington, of Chesterfield nominated her for the award this past spring. Lozano and Ethington are both current Webster
University students. Lozano is a studio art major and is also working toward a certificate in art therapy. Ethington is a WU graduate student, currently pursuing a master’s degree in health care administration. Ethington
met Lozano while working at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center where Lozano first began treatment.
“I nominated her when I came across the contest while reading Glamour,” Ethington said. “In all of my years of knowing Rachel, any opportunity
that I see where she can make people aware of her journey — her miracle — it catches my eye and I tell her about it.”
Lozano said she believes one reason
she is still alive, after doctors told her she had a zero percent survival rate with her most recent relapse, is because she feels she is supposed to help others.
“Surviving the relapse makes me feel like I can do most anything — that I am here for a purpose,” Lozano said.
Lozano won the title of “Woman of Your Year” by online voter participation.
Lozano, her husband and parents traveled to New York City for a party honoring her and other celebrity
winners at Carnegie Hall. Among them were U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, Maureen Chiquet, who is global CEO of Chanel and Gold medal winners of beach volleyball,
Olympians Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.
Ethington said Lozano has taught her about living each day to the fullest and being grateful for what you have.
“Seeing someone close to you become
ill gives you a reality check about what’s important in life,” Ethington said. “When she was diagnosed, she maintained a positive attitude and belief, and thought no matter how much time she had left, there was a purpose for her life, and she’s really using her life experiences to help others
like her.”
Lozano’s first diagnosis of Askin’s Tumor (located on her spine) was in 1998 and she had emergency surgery to remove the tumor, then went through chemotherapy
and radiation treatments. The second time, the cancer was in Lozano’s bone marrow and she had an intense bone marrow transplant in 2001. She then relapsed a third time in 2002 with a tumor growing between her heart, lung and spine. She said she had the tumor for a year and a half and the doctors told her it was untreatable.
“Miraculously the tumor stopped growing and they were able to remove it in May 2004,” Lozano said. “I am the only person ever with my type of cancer
who has survived it three times.”
Each year three to 30 people are diagnosed with this form of cancer. Lozano said her chances of survival kept diminishing each time she had a relapse of the cancer. The first diagnosis,
she had a 40 percent chance of survival; the second time, a 10 percent
chance and the third time she relapsed, doctors told her she had a zero percent chance of survival.
“I truly believe Rachel’s being here is a miracle of God,” Ethington said. “I have a background in Biology and she should not have survived. There’s no other explanation aside from a higher power being responsible for it.”
That diagnosis and subsequent remission
was six years ago and Lozano has not let those negative numbers stop her from doing what she wants out of life. She is attending college and married Gabe Lozano July 5. He said their relationship has to be deeper than surface-based relationships and that he tries to be very understanding and accommodating.
“We’re very faith-driven people and when something like this happens,
you can do one of two things,” Gabe Lozano said. “You can either get mad about your circumstances or you can accept it and use it to touch the lives of others, which is what Rachel has done.”
Lozano travels around the country
to educate people about cancer and also is an advocate for cancer research and pediatric cancer patients.
She was diagnosed with cancer
for the first time when she was 15, so she can empathize with children
who have been diagnosed as well. Her husband has also become an advocate for cancer patients by volunteering and organizing bone marrow drives.
“I realized I would become a brand-new statistic, a symbol of hope for others who will get cancer,” Lozano
said. “I do a lot of volunteer work and people reach out to me to speak around the country, as well as make artwork. I feel lucky to even be alive for all of this.”
The Lance Armstrong Foundation asked Lozano to meet with members of Congress to speak on their behalf about pediatric cancer and she did in May 2007. She was one of two people chosen from Missouri to meet with the Missouri members of Congress in Washington, D.C. to advocate for change in the cancer community. She said it was an incredible experience.

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