Fighting Cancer, Spreading Awareness With Art

When Anita Tran – a Vietnamese American born in Santa Ana – was first diagnosed with stage IV neuroendocrine carcinoma at the age of 21 and given a life expectancy of three to five years she felt like an alien in her body.

Now, she has taken that feeling to create a symbol of hope to show others battling cancer they are not alone and to spread awareness about the disease through her alien-themed artwork and its central character, Apollo the Alien.

“I created him to be whoever, whatever I want him to be and as a symbol of all of us, that as a cancer patient, we may feel isolated, and nobody might feel exactly the same way, but that’s what makes Apollo the Alien, an alien,” said Tran, now 25 and still living in Santa Ana.

The name Apollo stems from NASA’s spaceflight program that landed the first man on the moon – a program she learned about watching TV in the hospital.

“Us as humans – getting a man on the moon – we just wanted to do it, and we were able to succeed and failure was not an option to them,” Tran said. 

“The name symbolizes to me that even though the odds are against me, even though I’m diagnosed with illness, I can still find a way to make meaning out of it, create purpose and use those tragedies to somehow turn into strength.”

Tran’s form of cancer is rare, with the Cleveland Clinic noting that about 6 in 100,000 people develop neuroendocrine tumors that could lead to stage 4 cancer. 

She sells her Apollo stickers, jewelry, pins, hats and tote bags at pop up events – including at the SteelCraft market in Garden Grove – that help raise money for cancer research and awareness.

About 10% of her sticker sales goes towards different fundraisers including Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation and American Cancer Society.

Tran is currently doing a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society on Sept. 20 to support cancer research as part of the society’s Relay for Life walk hosted by Providence Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo.

Her fundraiser has raised over $1,200 so far.

It’s an event that local elected officials like Garden Grove City Councilwoman Yesenia Muñeton and her husband Garden Grove Unified School Board member Walter Muñeton plan on attending.

The two said they met Tran at the SteelCraft in Garden Grove and were inspired by her story –  a former English second language teacher at Santa Ana Community College who started out as instructional aid at Rosita Elementary and stopped teaching after her diagnosis to do her art and raise awareness. 

“Although she’s going through her medical situation, the fact that she wants to be active to more people in her community, I think that’s very incredible to want to make a difference for other kinds of patients and to let them know you’re not alone,” said Councilwoman Muñeton.

“The fact that she wants to do something for the community like that, it just makes her shine so bright.”

Walter Muñeton said that cancer is a disease many families have first hand experience with and that Anita’s mission to raise awareness can help save lives.

“Talking about this will then hopefully lead to somebody doing a screening, maybe preventative care and maybe wanting to go see their primary care physician and be a little bit more cautious about their health,” he said.

Yesenia Muñeton said the symbolism of Apollo is an important lesson to others diagnosed with cancer and to others in the community.

“I think that’s what I’ve learned from her, that we’re not alone – we’re not alone in where we are. That even though we might feel like we are, there’s other people that might be going through the same situation and we need to live through it. I feel when I see her, she’s always happy. She’s always ready to go another day,” she said.

“That’s very inspiring.”

Marcie Garcia, owner of the Xtyle It boutique that she runs with her daughter Itzel, said she met Tran by organizing pop up events at SteelCraft, noting that she stood out for her strength, kindness and optimism.

“She’s always had this big smile and she’s so sweet and she’s such a true fighter,” Garcia said.

“She’s fighting her own battle and yet  she’s there to support everybody. She’s amazing and she’s always finding ways to support the next person too.”

At an event in August with Tran, the boutique donated some of its proceeds to cancer research.

Garcia said Tran taught her there are no bad days.

Tran said she hopes her art spreads joy and provides comfort to people who feel isolated.

She also hopes it brings awareness and encourages people to get check ups and educate themselves about cancer and its symptoms, especially younger people like herself.

“If I could create art, if I could create something that could leave a legacy to help somebody else feel better in their own situation, then it would have meaning to my suffering,” Tran said.

Anita’s efforts to spread that awareness doesn’t come from her own cancer diagnosis alone.

Chi Duy Tran, her father and a Vietnam War veteran, died from cancer seven months before Anita was diagnosed with the disease in 2022. 

“It’s kind of like watching your hero turn human in front of you because he was my strong man, like you never think like it could happen to him and even throughout all that, I’ve never seen him cry or complain or any of that,” said Anita, who was a caregiver to her father.

“He was very strong.”

Anita’s Sept. 20 fundraiser is in honor of her father.

Her own diagnosis, she said, made it difficult to grieve the loss of her dad and robbed her of the life she had planned for herself.

“My body felt like it went into a survival mode for myself,” Tran said. 

“I was very angry the first year and very sad. I was always asking, Why me? Why my dad? Why is this happening to us? We try to be good people. We try to be kind to each other, and I don’t know why it happened to us.”

The second year, Anita said she wanted to make a difference.

To be like her hero.

Her dad.

“That’s when I started drawing and I didn’t realize that drawing became my medicine,” she said.

“To become the hero of your own story, you have to overcome your tragedy and you have to choose to use it for good.” 

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC reporter. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.