COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On March 10, 13-year-old Gabby Zarate was diagnosed with bilateral thalamic gliomas, a rare brain tumor that has changed her life.
On Friday April 14, Make-A-Wish made her dream come true by allowing her to become an Aggie veterinarian.
Gabby's father, Michael, explained her condition and how it's affected her.
“She has lost a lot of emotion. She has lost the ability to speak. It hasn’t affected her intelligence, but it does affect a lot of emotional things and unfortunately she was misdiagnosed by a lot of professionals, so this has unfortunately taken her out of a lot of the things that she loves to do, especially with her animals,” he said.
Gabby has found strength and happiness in her two primary passions: animals and Aggie football.
“I received a call late last week from my counterpart there and she said 'hey we’ve got this really special wish and this really special girl who wants to be a veterinarian and she knows A&M is the best school out there. How can you help?'” said Make-A-Wish CEO Shelly Millwee.
Gabby and her family traveled from their home in Rio Grande City in south Texas to College Station to spend the weekend as an official Aggie veterinarian.
“She herself did the research and she said I want to go here and we told her we’ll make it happen however we can and which is why she's involved in agriculture for so long to try to get her scholarships and things like that to come to this amazing place," said Michael. "So when she found out she was coming here, super excited like I said she doesn't show emotion but her face says it all when she gives you that smile.”