Davion

A muggy Friday evening in late May, wearing a polyester blue gown over a shirt and tie, is not the stuff of teenage dreams.

But this day was 18-year-old Davion's dream.

It was his high school graduation day. He’d fought for his life to not miss this moment: His name called over the microphone; his walk across the stage; his diploma.

A milestone passed in a few seconds. And he credits clinicians at Children’s Health℠ that it was ever possible.

“In the last year, my thoughts have been all over the place, and I would wonder ‘Am I going to make it to the next day?’” Davion said before his graduation from Dallas ISD’s magnet School of Health Professionals at Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Center this summer.

“Making it to this day, I look at it like it’s a huge blessing. I’ve been through a lot.”

In 2018, Davion noticed a cyst on his lower back was slowly growing, not going away. Clinicians at Children’s Medical Center Dallas removed the cyst, but the wound didn’t heal.

Davion developed a migraine that kept him up at night. His weight dropped about 70 pounds.

His mom took him back to the hospital, where he was diagnosed on February 2018 with Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Davion was in and out of Children’s Health for six months while he received chemotherapy treatment and was discharged in August 2018. While at the hospital, he made a music video to Bruno Mars’ “Count on Me” song about his cancer experience, highlighting his family and Children’s Health care team in playful, smiling clips. 

The video started as a project to distract him from hospital stays, chemotherapy treatments and losing his hair, but it evolved into an outlet to connect with other pediatric cancer patients facing similar struggles.

“Even though the situation can be brutal, I wanted to show that you can have fun and make a good time out of the situation you’re in,” he said.

Davion is now a freshman at the University of North Texas at Dallas, pursuing a career as a nurse. He said his experience at Children’s Health inspired him to enter the medical field to help other kids.

“A part of me didn’t want to leave Children’s, believe it or not,” he said of when his treatment ended. “I knew at Children’s, I was protected.”

Read more patient stories like Davion's to learn how Children's Medical Center Foundation impacts the lives of North Texas children.