Oxford teen faces heart attack, cancer diagnosis with grace, grit

OXFORD, Ga. - Sophie Botello spends her days helping take care of the animals on her family's 5-acre rescue sanctuary in Oxford, Georgia.

"I've always been an animal lover, that is how I was raised," Botello says.

Now 19, she has been riding horses since she was 3.

"It is one of the things that brings me the most joy in life," she says.

These days, Botello still takes care of their horses, but she has not been able to ride them for nearly a year, since the day her life changed last fall.

She was starting her freshman year at Georgia State University in Atlanta, walking between classes, when she began to feel unwell.

"It was hot that day, so I thought it was just the heat," Botello remembers. "My chest started getting really tight, and I started getting this strong pain, this sharp pain in my chest."

She tried sitting down, but it did not help.

"I decided to call 911, because it was getting worse," she says.

In the ER at Emory Midtown Hospital, Botello learned her chest pain was a heart attack.

The news got worse, where Botello was told clot doctors removed in an emergency procedure likely came from a suspicious mass in Botello's abdomen.

"(It was) right about my ribcage area," she says. "It was about the size of my hand."

On the same day she had a heart attack at 18, Botello learned she also had liver cancer.

"I mean, I couldn't, nothing felt real," she says, remembering that moment.

She was diagnosed with fibrolamellar carcinoma, a type of liver cancer that affects fewer than 50 Americans every year, most of them otherwise healthy young people.

"They said it's a very rare, extremely rare type of cancer, that is actually one in five million type of liver cancer, that affects young adolescents or young adults with otherwise healthy livers," Cecilia Fernandez, her mother, explains.

After nearly a month in Emory Midtown, she began treatment at Emory Hospital.

Eventually, Botello became a patient at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Dr. Thomas Olson is Botello's oncologist at Children's, but she's also being treated by another pediatric cancer specialist Dr. Paul Kent at Rush University in Chicago, who specializes in Sophie's rare cancer.

"When you have a rare cancer like this, it's very difficult to treat because you don't have a lot of evidence or information," Dr. Olson says.

"The ultimate goal is surgery, with this type of cancer," Botello's mother says. "It's imminent."

To get there, they first have to shrink the tumors in her abdomen, which they are trying to do chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiation.

"She's had so many painful procedures, tests, treatments," Fernandez says. "And, she's never even flinched, and she keeps going and fighting."

Between treatments, Botello has started a jewelry business, selling her pieces online.

"I've had to learn to just take things as they come and not think about the what-ifs, just to think about what is happening in front of me right now," she says.

She dreams of one day riding again,

"As soon as I am strong enough, I will be back on the horse," Botello smiles.

Botello hopes to return to college, taking an online class or two.

She wants to one day go to UGA's Vet School and become a veterinarian.

"We are very hopeful, the doctors are very hopeful," her mother says.

Sophie Botello never imagined she would have to face cancer at 18.

"But, here I am," Botello says. "Because I'm not, I'm not ready to die.  And, I believe that I can fight this, I believe that I can win. So, I'm fighting hard."