El Paso residents hold car wash to help pay for toddler’s cancer treatment

The car wash lasted until 4 p.m. at Viva Power Sports on 1045 Magruder Street.

In a matter of months, two-year-old Mia Ojeda has undergone more than twenty surgeries for her stage four neuroblastoma.

“Mia is one of the strongest little girls I’ve ever known,” said her mother, Suracy Gonzalez. “She is a happy, bubbly, hyper, two-year-old girl that just wants to be a normal kid.”

Gonzalez and her daughter are from El Paso, but their family recently moved to Forth Worth to seek treatment for her cancer.

“We’re going to be in debt for the rest of our lives, but that doesn’t matter,” Gonzalez said. “As long as my daughter gets to live a normal life.”

Suracy said she flew from Forth Worth to El Paso after she learned her coworkers had organized a car wash to raise money for the cancer treatment. Dozens of people who had never met Mia showed their support.

“Both of my parents passed from cancer,” said La-Shone Petty, who volunteered at the car wash. “I will always try to help someone else who’s in need. She’s only two.”

“For her to be going through so much, she just needs all the help she can get,” said Lupe Hammer, an El Paso grandmother who brought her car to get washed. “I can’t begin to feel the parents’ pain.”

Gonzalez dreams one day her daughter will attend prom, graduate high school and get married.

“I would do anything for her,” Gonzalez said. “I would give my liver for her, I would give my heart for her, just for her to be a happy person and live a long life.”

Visit the car wash before 4 p.m. on Saturday! To follow Mia’s journey or contact her mother, message her Facebook page here.