Honored Kid

Benicio (Benny) Martinez

Age 19
Benicio (Benny) Martinez Kid Photo

Location

Park Ridge, IL, US

Diagnosis

Brain or spinal cord tumor

Date of Diagnosis

March 2016

Status

No evidence of disease

Treated At

Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children

Change your kid's logo

My Story

I first shaved my head for St. Baldrick's in the spring of 2016 at the age of 11. Just 11 days afterward, I was diagnosed with Medulloblastoma brain cancer while on a family vacation in Orlando. I underwent brain surgery, radiation and chemo and was working hard to relearn how to walk, talk and eat again, when I developed a rare and deadly side effect called radiation necrosis in my brain stem. I gradually lost mobility over the next several months and was eventually put on a ventilator.

Even though I had to spend 576 days in the hospital, I worked hard to keep up with my schoolwork and graduated from high school with my classmates in 2022. I currently use an iPad with a camera that tracks my eye movements, and I can also play video games with it - one of my favorite pastimes. I'm looking forward to going to college and am thinking of getting a degree in graphic design.

Since my first fundraiser in 2016, my friends, family and I have raised over $250,000 dollars for St. Baldrick's. This funds critical research for safer treatments with fewer side effects to treat childhood cancer. I'm lucky to be alive today, unlike so many other children who have lost their lives to cancer. Still, I would hope that other survivors could benefit from newer, safer treatments to minimize the impact of long-term side effects, like those I am dealing with. 

The Childhood Cancer Ripple Effect

Who's Honoring Me

Help Give Kids a Lifetime

Infants, children, teens and young adults are depending on us to find cures for childhood cancers — and to give survivors long and healthy lives.

Support lifesaving childhood cancer research today.

Photo submission policy

Please read the photo submission policy and accept below.

By submitting a photograph of yourself on www.StBaldricks.org, you agree to the following terms and conditions for submission of your photograph:

We strongly encourage all users to submit a before and after photo, so that donors and fellow participants can easily recognize and relate to one another.

Any photo containing cartoons, comics, celebrities, nudity, pornography, sexually explicit images or any copyrighted image (unless you own the copyright) is not permitted. This is because photos of celebrities and cartoon or comic images are generally copyrighted by the owner.

Uploading images of other people without their permission is also prohibited.

This photo submission policy applies to StBaldricks.org users. The St. Baldrick’s Foundation reserves the right to review all photos and to remove any photo for any reason at our sole discretion. If you see a photo on StBaldricks.org that you believe does not conform to this policy, email to WebQuestions@StBaldricks.org