El Paso mother and son strengthen bond through shared cancer experience

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Dolores and Che Juarez both went through something only a few of us can ever know: cancer. As mother and son, they were able to strengthen their bond through a shared experience.

Che got his diagnosis first in 2012. Doctors found a baseball-sized tumor in his brain and he had to have emergency surgery at a hospital in Maryland because there wasn't a cancer center close enough to El Paso.

"It was surreal," said Che. "I really couldn't believe that it was happening to me." Che was able to fully recover, but in 2025, his family's world got turned around again. His mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in October.

"I was in shock and afraid, and I didn't know what to expect," said Dolores.

She had to lean on her family for strength and guidance, especially from Che. "I was just glad that he was with me. It meant the world to me."

"It was a role reversal, right?" said Che. "I was able to give back to her the things that she had so effortlessly given me throughout my life."

As we go into Mother's Day weekend, their unbreakable bond is even stronger after Dolores's 21-day treatment. She was able to be treated in El Paso at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. Unlike her son, she was able to stay in town due to the school's cancer center.

"Two different forms of cancer, but still, it's a shared experience," said Che. "It's only strengthened our bond even further. We are already strong, but everything that life throws at you will make you stronger."