Laredo 12-Year-Old Faces Cancer Again Months After Liver Transplant and Remission Bell

Just seven months after ringing the bell as cancer-free, 12-year-old Axel of Laredo, Texas, is back in treatment, his family says.

He first survived high-risk hepatoblastoma, a rare childhood liver cancer. He completed chemotherapy, received a liver transplant and saw his tumor markers fall from about 83,000 to 5. He went home. Then his knee began to hurt.

Days after his 12th birthday, relatives say doctors found cancer in his bones and transferred him about five hours away to Houston for another intensive course of care.

His mother, identified by the family as Yaz, has asked for prayers.

The first fight began in August 2025, when Axel was tired, eating less and developing swelling in his abdomen. A pediatrician sent him to the hospital. Doctors found a large liver tumor. The family says the disease had also advanced toward his heart and lungs.

Months of chemotherapy followed, then a wait for a donor liver. In December, the first offered organ was rejected as too large. Three days later a matching organ arrived. Axel had the transplant and spent 11 days in intensive care.

Tumor markers dropped. Chemotherapy ended in January. On February 11 he rang the bell. He later returned to Laredo, to his father and siblings, and began thinking about middle school.

Knee pain led to discovery of a mass. In September he was sent back to Houston. The family says the cancer is now in his bones.

They describe Axel as a gifted artist, a loving sibling and still a joking child. He wants to beat the disease again and go home. Relatives also ask that his transplanted liver be protected and that the family of six find a path through another long separation.

Source: Family account of Axel of Laredo, Texas, as shared by his mother in a September 2026 prayer update describing diagnosis in August 2025, transplant and remission in early 2026, and a subsequent bone-cancer finding with transfer to Houston. Independent hospital confirmation was not located in public news reports at the time of writing.