HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Hundreds of runners and walkers will turn out in The Woodlands Saturday for the Arthritis Foundation's Jingle Bell Run.
Often thought of as a disease of old age, arthritis affects more than 300,000 children across the U.S. One local 12 year old is one of those children whose martial arts dreams were sidelined after his diagnosis.
Lying perfectly still as a giant machine scans his body is part of life for 12-year-old Roman Rueda.
Just two and a half years earlier, Roman was competing in Brazilian Jui-Jitsu marital arts tournaments.
"His last tournaments and competitions--he obviously, even though he was winning--he was coming out crying," Roman's father Reynaldo Rueda said.
His father says he was crying in pain.
"It was back in fifth grade. That's when I really felt it," Roman said. "My mom was like 'hey are you hurting?' I was like a little bit, and so they took me to the doctor."
"It just got progressively worse until he was in a wheel chair and we were referred to a specialist--a rheumatologist for further evaluation and it was then that we got a firm diagnosis," Roman's mother Laura Rueda said.
What mom originally thought was growing pains turned out to be juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.
"It's estimated that 300,000 children in the US suffer from this disease, so it's not just an old person's disease," said Texas Children's Hospital rheumatologist Dr. Andrea Ramirez.
After years of treatment and medication, today Roman is in remission.
"I'm very proud of Roman. I know he has worked really hard. He has been through physical therapy. He has had such a positive outlook and his family has been there 100 percent of the time to support him," Ramirez said.
Although he can no longer compete in martial arts, some call him a hero for all that he has been through.
"Every kid with arthritis, every elder person with arthritis should be looked at that way. Everyone's a hero. I'm not a hero. I'm just a person that's a part of those heroes," Roman said.
Roman has the honor of being the youth honoree at this year's Arthritis Foundation Bell Run and Walk.
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For more information on the Jingle Bell Run/Walk, click here.
For more information on Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, click here.