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San Diego's Boy & Girl of the Year

The Boy & Girl of the Year are local children battling blood cancers who serve as motivation and inspiration to Man & Woman of the Year candidates in their competition to raise funds and be named Man or Woman of the Year.

Boy of the Year

Jr. Caloca
Angel David Caloca, Jr., "Junior" for short, is 3 years old. He was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in October 2010. Until then he was a healthy boy who surpassed the normal percentile for height and weight. Junior is currently in the "maintenance stage" of his treatment. For the next 3 years he'll have to take medication almost every day. He has an 85% chance for full recovery. Even though he gets poked at least once a month and is given medication that makes him tired with headaches, he still loves to smile and finds energy to run around the house with his little brother Julian. Chuckie Cheese is one of his favorite places to go. Jr. is learning new words every day from his favorite cartoons and from the books his mom reads him before bed. He already knows his ABCs, basic colors, animal sounds and how to count to 10 in English and Spanish. He loves building tracks for his Thomas the Trains; his parents call him a Train Engineer. He is just a miracle from God that his parents teach him to thank Him for every day.

Girl of the Year

Olivia Gastaldo

Olivia Gastaldo is 15 years old and is a sophomore at Del Norte High School. She plays competitive volleyball and loves music and singing. Olivia was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) on July 6, 2006.  At the time, the pain in her legs made it difficult to walk.  Her parents brought her to Rady Children's Hospital and her white blood cell count was many times what it should have been. Her blood was immediately filtered, but that didn't bring the count down as much as needed.  On the fourth day, Olivia's doctors chose to treat her with Gleevec.  After treatment, her white blood cell count came down and has been low ever since! Gleevec has been Olivia's miracle drug and has kept her healthy and stable for the past 5 years. Olivia is so grateful to be able to live a healthy and normal life thanks to LLS and Gleevec.