Parker Angelus Diaz was born in West Covina, California on October 5, 2000. He was raised by his father, the founder of Parker Project, Daniel Diaz and his grandparents Jose and Gloria Diaz. In 2006 Parker’s grandfather retired and decided to move the family to San Antonio, Texas seeking a better educational system. Parker was a happy child with an old soul, as is the case most often when children are raised by their grandparents. Parker was bilingual (Spanish and English), liked martial arts, and video games.

In 2010 Parker began to have what his family thought were “growing pains” in his legs. Parker’s father and grandparents sought medical attention from many places; general practitioners, orthopedic doctors, and specialist to attempt to figure out what the pains were attributed to. On February 9, 2011 while checking into a specialists office the nurses found that despite Parker feeling normal, his blood pressure was dangerously high. He was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. Parker and his family spent 2 weeks at Methodist Children’s hospital, and, after many tests, doctors found a tumor on his adrenal gland the size on an orange. He was diagnosed with Adrenal Carcinoma – a cancer that is very rare for someone at such a young age.

Parker had surgery to remove the tumor, and with aggressive chemotherapy he did get better for short time. A few months later the cancer grew back. There were a few days during each month when the chemotherapy cycled out of Parker’s body where he could do normal things, like shopping at Target. His family grew to truly appreciate those good times as they were few and far between.

On March 13, 2012, after 13 months of chemotherapy and radiation Parker lost his fight to cancer.