In 1978, a 17-year-old Rodrigo Nuñez left his home in a small village in Mexico and headed to El Norte, in search of the American dream. Little did he know that his pursuit of a better life would be lifesaving.

Six months after arriving in central California and beginning to labor as a migrant worker, Rodrigo fell ill. Within a week, he was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare and usually fatal illness. Fortuitous circumstance led Rodrigo to City of Hope, where physicians were pioneering the use of bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for treatment of aplastic anemia.

Arriving at the hospital alone and isolated by his Spanish language, Rodrigo was impressed by the compassion of the staff. “One of the nurses gave me her lunch because I had arrived after mealtime,” he recalls. “I was so grateful, I told her, ‘I am going to be just like you: I am going to become a nurse.’”

There were numerous challenges to providing treatment for Rodrigo, but in each instance, City of Hope staff came through. They located his family in Mexico and arranged the testing that identified Rodrigo’s brothers as potential marrow donors. Social workers also located a family in South Pasadena, California, that agreed to host Rodrigo in their home, before and after his BMT.

In December 1978, with one of his brothers as his donor, Rodrigo underwent the BMT. He recovered over the next year in the home of his host family, whose kindness paved the way to his dreams: as long as he wanted to attend school, he could live in their home. Rodrigo enrolled in high school and mustered his way through classes taught in English. Upon graduation, he enrolled in Pasadena City College’s nursing program. True to the words he uttered years earlier, for the past 18 years Rodrigo has been a registered nurse in City of Hope’s Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit. As a nurse and a survivor, he is an inspiration to his patients and testament to what is possible when dreams are pursued.