Soliz first noticed unexplained pain in her left knee while playing high school basketball. After her diagnosis, doctors presented two options: a total knee replacement or amputation. She initially rejected the idea of losing her leg, she recalled, but reconsidered after learning the cancer had spread from the bone into surrounding tissue. She chose amputation to reduce the chance that cancerous tissue would remain.

Her recovery included rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, where she learned to walk with a prosthetic leg. The process was physically and emotionally difficult, but Soliz worked toward returning to athletics.

By her senior year, she was playing golf again and competing in adaptive seated shot put. She earned a silver medal in the event at the state championships. Despite spending her junior year of high school in a hospital bed, she graduated as salutatorian.

Now studying biomedical sciences at TCU, Soliz hopes to become a pediatric oncologist. She said the doctors who treated her inspired her to support young patients facing cancer.

“I want to be able to be the person that my oncologist was to me to other kids,” she said.

Dr. Vinay Vanodia, director of limb loss at TIRR Memorial Hermann, described her progress from cancer treatment through rehabilitation and into college as rewarding to witness.

Soliz also hopes her experience helps others facing limb loss see possibilities beyond their diagnosis. “Your life doesn't depend on how many limbs you do or don't have,” she said. “It ultimately depends on what you make of it.”