Arceneaux is a bone cancer survivor treated at St. Jude’s. At the age of 10, Arceneaux’s femur was partially removed and replaced with a rod. Her orthopedic surgeon assured her that, “There’s going to be no limits on you in space.”
The Louisiana native says she is thrilled to be representing what she believes will be a “sea change in space travel.”
“The one thing that I’m most excited about this mission is that I’m going up with a big rod in my leg,” she said in a PEOPLE interview. “I could have never been an astronaut until this mission because I would have had to have been physically perfect, and I don’t fit into that category. I love that this mission is changing that.”
“When I learned I was going to fill the Hope seat, I just felt like it was coming full circle because hope has been the word I’ve always held on to, ever since I was in treatment.”
She hopes to video call kids with cancer from space. “It is a responsibility, in every way, to represent hope. I want this mission to show kids going through cancer, for survivors, to dream big, and that the sky’s not even the limit.”
