JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – She's only 6 years old and still battling cancer.
Ellie Szabados has been on The Morning Show several times, and she returned to Channel 4 on Wednesday after another hospital visit to catch up and tell everyone how she's doing since she's been fighting cancer for a year now.
If you haven't met Ellie, you're missing out. She melts hearts within seconds, and to think behind her smiling face she's battling brain cancer, you would never know.
She thinks going to the hospital is fun, a perspective most people probably wouldn't have.
"Because one time I saw all my friends there and they are all praying right for me," Ellie said.
This past weekend, Ellie and her 16-year-old sister served as junior cheerleaders for the Jaguars, but it was back to the hospital come Monday morning. She's been getting tests the past few days as well as undergoing chemotherapy. Her parents say it isn't easy, but their main goal is to stay as upbeat as possible.
"It's a challenge trying to keep up with her. I mean, she runs me ragged," Victor Szabados, Ellie's dad, said.
Ellie's hair is growing in again and she dances around like a healthy kid, but her family says she does crash and she does have times where she's really sick.
"Seeing her going through this, I think of it all going to bed and everything, and it gets to me still," Cassie Szabados, Ellie's sister, said.
Ellie's mother said it was about this time last year when they found out Ellie had a brain tumor, and this past year has been a hard journey.
"Just put one foot in front of the other because it's all you can do, and if you don't, you'll fall on your face," Steph Szabados, Ellie's mom, said. "You don't want your child to see you falling on your face."
Ellie's family is hoping to have a fundraiser for her later this month.