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A 16-year-old St. Pius X High School student will get an audience next month with Pope Leo XIV, but her journey to the Vatican is not one that anyone would envy.

Isabella "Bella" Solis was diagnosed last year with a massive, cancerous tumor in her abdomen that required surgery and multiple rounds of chemotherapy in the months that followed.

Make-A-Wish New Mexico told Isabella last week that she would have an audience with the pope on May 27.

"It was a good surprise," Isabella said Monday. "My initial wish was to just travel to Rome and see the Vatican." When Make-A-Wish staff asked her if she would like to meet the pope, her response was, "Yeah, I would love to meet the pope, like, if that's a possibility."

Isabella was playing softball in March 2025 when she began to experience back pain, said her father, Miguel Solis. Doctors soon discovered the tumor but at first were uncertain what caused it.

"It was almost a 14-pound tumor sitting on her pelvis," Miguel Solis said Monday. "So obviously it had to come out." A biopsy later found Isabella had a rare ovarian cancer called a Sertoli-Leydig cell tumor, found in only 0.5% of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Surgery and eight rounds of chemotherapy followed in March and April 2025.

"Obviously it was very, very rough on her body," said her father, a lieutenant with sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Fire Rescue. Isabella turned 16 as an inpatient at Presbyterian Hospital.

"She never complained once about having cancer, you know, being sick, being in pain," he said. Instead, Isabella was more concerned about her parents and brother throughout the ordeal. "That just kind of shows what kind of character that she has."

In January, doctors told Isabella that she appears to be cancer-free, her father said. After missing much of her sophomore year and half of her junior year, she resumed her studies at St. Pius in January.

Sara Lister, president and CEO of Make-a-Wish New Mexico, said Isabella's upcoming visit with the pope came about because a staff member at Make-A-Wish Colorado had a family friend who grew up with Robert Francis Prevost, who in May 2025 was named the first U.S.-born pope.

Make-A-Wish New Mexico is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.

Isabella said her faith, her family and many supportive people helped her through the ordeal. The experience also convinced her to pursue a career as a nurse.

"I have a really strong faith, and that helped me a lot, actually, and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to go to Rome," Isabella said.

"This whole thing kind of just shifted my perspective on life and how other kids my age, and even younger, go through the same thing,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o I decided pretty early on I wanted to become a pediatric oncology nurse. I've met a lot of really sweet people around my journey and it's really nice to know that I wasn't the only one going through it.鈥�