. >> i'm jackie garcia and i'm a cancer survivor. >> reporter: this year jackie garcia is part of a team of cancer survivors who worked on a float built by the city of hope, a hospital and research center that has saved countless lives. >> i feel very excited. it's an honor to be with my doctors up there. >> the float for us represents everything we're trying to do. restore lives, bring them back to their communities and their family. >> this looks great. >> reporter: before the parade, survivors putting the final touches on the display and recounting the struggle that cancer brings. >> it's just disbelief. you know, why me? my god, i've never been sick a day in my life. got to take care of it now. >> reporter: rodrigo nunez was once a migrant worker picking grapes in the fields of california, until he was diagnosed for a rare form of anemia. decades later, he is now a nurse in the very same hospital where doctors saved his life. where would you be without the doctor? >> i wouldn't be here. i don't think i'd be alive. >> reporter: also on the float, lapd commander ann clark now in remiss