Deven Lorenzo Leonis was born on December 9th, 1997. Deven was born with a heart disease and was in and out of the hospital his whole life. When Deven was 12 years old, he started to get very sick. He would have sore throats all the time, and he never had any energy. After a few years of not knowing what was wrong, Deven went to his doctor. In November, 2011, Deven had his tonsils and adenoids taken out. While he was in recovery, the doctors had told Deven’s mother that they had found a white substance where Deven’s adenoids should be.
Deven and his family were told not to worry about anything and that they would be notified if something was wrong. On December 9th, 2011, Deven’s 14th birthday, his mom came home early from work. Deven started to worry that something was wrong. After a few hours went by, and his family was coming over for his birthday, Deven asked his mom what was wrong. Deven asked his mom if she had cancer, and when she said no, he asked if he did. When his mom did not reply to his question, Deven knew that it meant he had cancer. After the doctors did tests, Deven was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.
Deven went through four cycles of chemotherapy and two weeks a radiation and remarkably went into remission. His family was so happy that they took a trip to Disneyland to celebrate. While in Disneyland, Deven and his mom noticed his lymph nodes swelling up again and started to worry that the cancer had come back. When Deven and his family came home, they immediately went to the doctor to see what was wrong. The doctors biopsied Deven’s swollen lymph node and found that the cancer was back; Deven had relapsed. The family was devastated.
Despite the battle that he was about to encounter, Deven was not afraid; he knew that if he beat it once, he could beat it again. Deven went through 12 more cycles of chemotherapy over the next year and a half. Deven’s 15th round of chemotherapy was looking successful. The doctors did test after test to confirm; they then notified Deven and his family that Deven was, again, in remission. Ever since January 2013, Deven Lorenzo Leonis has been cancer free and able to live his life as a teenager and a freshman in high school. Every day his family prays to God and thanks Him for the miracle that He gave to them.
