Texas Children's hosted graduation for terminally ill student before she passed away

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Earlier this year, many gathered to celebrate a special 19-year-old who was battling a rare and difficult form of Leukemia. Magali Ramirez had been working hard in school and with her ROTC program while at the same time battling the disease. One of her goals was to graduate and while she was in the hospital her closest friends and family came together to make that dream come true.

Ramirez shared with us her feelings about the graduation ceremony thrown for her at Texas Children's Hospital. Family, friends and ROTC members gathered to honor the 19-year-old, as she continued her fight against Leukemia.

"Acute Myeloid Leukemia or AML which Magali has is a lot less common and much harder to treat and cure, it's just way more aggressive," said Dr. ZoAnn Dreyer, medical director of the long term survivor program

Dr. Dreyer says Magali had a couple cycles of chemotherapy early on and her disease got under control, but something changed.

"It came back this past summer with a recurrence of that leukemia," Dr. Dreyer said.

Extremely involved in the ROTC program at Wisdom High School, Magali had dreams of being in the Army. During treatments, her leaders stayed by her side.

"Sergeant and I were with Magali from the first day she got diagnosed with Leukemia, for about a year and a half," said Major Adrian Corona.

When the idea came about to have a ceremony to celebrate her life, she had no idea that so many people were working behind the scenes to make it happen.

"My principal and the teacher down here talked about it and decided I was ready to graduate, it made my dream come true," Magali said.

Shortly after her interview with us, Magali unfortunately lost her battle against Leukemia.

Some of Magali's closest friends who were at the ceremony have great memories of her from that day.

"She looked so vibrant and you can see that she was happy so, if she was happy, I was happy," said Twagirayesu Adier.

Sergeant 1st Class Trint Conrod says even though Magali is no longer with us, her spirit and legacy will live on at the ROTC program at Wisdom High School.

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