Leevi is a kind and giving little boy with a heart of gold.
He is always the first to lend a hand and the last to leave when the job is done.
He will do anything just to make someone smile.
But behind his gentle nature lies a journey no child should ever endure.
When Leevi was just six months old, something unusual began.
He started banging his head.
Concerned, his parents brought him to their local pediatrician.
They hoped for an explanation, for answers that would ease their fears.
Instead, they were told to ignore it.
“It’s just bad behavior,” the doctor said.
“He’ll stop eventually.”
But he didn’t.
As Leevi grew, the head banging became worse.
It wasn’t simply a phase.
It was a sign.
And yet, no one seemed to listen.
Over the next year and a half, new symptoms appeared.
Leevi began walking with an altered gait.
His steps looked off, his balance unsteady.
Month after month, the changes continued.
Then came the irritability.
Leevi became inconsolable, his cries filled with a pain his family could not understand.
His mom, Brittini, felt a growing sense of unease.
Something was wrong.
Deep down, she knew it.
She brought him to another doctor.
This time, the diagnosis was strep throat.
Antibiotics were prescribed.
But the medicine didn’t help.
Nothing improved.
At home, life became increasingly difficult.
To protect him, his parents wrapped his crib in pool noodles, so that the head banging wouldn’t cause him to bleed.
They stayed close, always on edge, ready to step in if things escalated.
Then, just a week after Leevi’s second birthday, the nightmare grew clearer.
He started vomiting, though he insisted he didn’t feel sick.
Soon after, a headache struck so intensely that he screamed and cried in agony.
After projectile vomiting, he said his head felt better.
But his parents knew better.
They rushed him to the emergency room.
There, a CT scan finally revealed the truth.
The source of his suffering was a tumor.
Leevi was diagnosed with anaplastic ependymoma.
The mass was in the fourth ventricle of his brain.
It wrapped around his brain stem.
Treatment needed to begin immediately.
Leevi was flown to a larger hospital for further testing.
On August 28, 2017, he underwent an eight-hour neurosurgery.
The surgeons were able to completely remove the tumor.
But the surgery came at a heavy cost.
Leevi lost the ability to feed himself.
He could no longer hold his head up.
He could not sit unassisted.
He could not crawl or walk.
All the milestones he had achieved vanished in an instant.
He began physical therapy and occupational therapy.
A mediport was placed to continue treatment.
At the end of September, he started radiation.
By November, Leevi was finally able to return home.
For a moment, there was relief.
For a moment, there was hope.
He was enrolled in a clinical trial, and chemotherapy began.
But his small body struggled with the brutal treatments.
He lost weight quickly.
He developed mucositis, neutropenia, and recurring infections.
The side effects left permanent marks.
Leevi now wears hearing aids due to hearing loss.
He wears glasses for depth perception issues.
He uses a power wheelchair for outings because he cannot walk long distances.
And because of a poor gag reflex, he still vomits unexpectedly.
For a while, the family held on to hope.
But in June 2021, during a routine MRI, the nightmare returned.
The tumor had come back in the fourth ventricle of his brain.
On July 30, Leevi endured another major surgery.
This time, a suboccipital craniotomy with duraplasty and a titanium plate to hold his skull together.
After surgery, his family met with multiple specialists—oncologists, radiologists, and neuro-oncologists.
They searched desperately for more options.
But the answers they received were crushing.
No more treatments.
No more trials available.
Still, his family refused to give up hope.
They kept searching.
Eventually, their search brought them to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
There, an oncologist told them there might be a clinical trial Leevi could qualify for.
This trial involved radioactive isotopes.
Samples of Leevi’s tumor were sent for in-depth pathology to test for protein markers.
If his tumor matches, Leevi will face even more treatment.
But with it comes another chance.
Another flicker of hope.
Through it all, Brittini has never stopped seeing her son as a hero.
She says he is brave.
He is determined.
He is sweet, loving, and kind.
She hopes he never forgets how strong he is.
She dreams of his future.
Perhaps, one day, he could become a pediatric oncologist, inspired by his own battle.
But when you ask Leevi, his dream is simpler.
He wants to be a farmer.
He is obsessed with John Deere tractors.
For other families, Brittini offers encouragement.
“Stay strong and keep fighting.
No journey is the same, and there will always be obstacles.
When those obstacles seem overwhelming, look to Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for hope: hope for a cure, so no child has to battle cancer.”
