{"id":390729,"date":"2026-09-04T21:40:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:40:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390729\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T21:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T21:40:08","slug":"how-taylor-swift-joined-a-teens-south-florida-cancer-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/390729\/","title":{"rendered":"How Taylor Swift joined a teen\u2019s South Florida cancer fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"responsive-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/valentina and taylor.jpg\"   width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" title=\"Taylor Swift, right, visited Valentina Olivares and other patients at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital in Hollywood.\" alt=\"Taylor Swift, right, visited Valentina Olivares and other patients at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital in Hollywood.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>        Taylor Swift, right, visited Valentina Olivares and other patients at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>            Courtesy of Valentina Olivares<\/p>\n<p>Valentina Olivares was 15 years old when doctors at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital diagnosed her with a rare form of B-cell lymphoma. Three years later, she celebrated the end of her treatment by ringing the Hollywood hospital\u2019s bell, marking the close of a long journey that included chemotherapy, inpatient procedures and extensive recovery.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been just very shocking to reflect on how my life was like not even a year and a half ago to where I am now,\u201d said Olivares, who is sharing her story to help raise awareness during Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month.<\/p>\n<p>According to Dr. Brian Cauff, chief of pediatric hematology at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital, Olivares\u2019 diagnosis was particularly unusual because the lymphoma appeared exclusively in her spinal fluid.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s really unusual for it to show up only in the spinal fluid, which is what happened to Valentina,\u201d Dr. Cauff said.<\/p>\n<p>How Taylor Swift became part of her cancer journey<\/p>\n<p>During her treatment, Olivares faced setbacks, including a fever that forced her to miss a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/tag\/taylor-swift\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Taylor Swift<\/a> concert in Tampa. Her care team, however, surprised her by bringing the concert experience to her hospital room.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey brought the Eras Tour to me essentially, while I was fighting a fever, and that made me feel so much better,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Eighteen months later, she received another surprise: two tickets to the opening night of the Eras Tour at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was my first concert ever, so the entire experience was surreal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Swift eventually visited patients at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital, where she met Olivares and took a selfie with her \u2014 a photo that remains the wallpaper on the cancer survivor\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n<p>Olivares, who was treated with CAR T-cell therapy, is now an accounting student at Broward College. Dr. Cauff emphasized that such medical advancements are made possible through ongoing research and public support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou are so much stronger than you think,\u201d Olivares said, offering advice to other young patients. \u201cYou are capable of so many things, and don\u2019t be scared, because everything works out in the end. You just have to give it time, take one day at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This report was produced by Miami Herald news partner <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/miami\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CBS News Miami.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift, right, visited Valentina Olivares and other patients at Joe DiMaggio Children\u2019s Hospital in Hollywood. Courtesy of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-390729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}