A five-year-old boy from Tennessee overcame his battle with cancer after taking his final dose of chemotherapy and rang the cancer-free bell.
Five-year-old Noah Sileno had been fighting B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia for 830 days before it finally went into remission, WBNS reported.
“At three, leukemia tried to steal him. At four, leukemia learned to fear him,” his mother, Martha Sileno, said. “And at five, Noah became a leukemia survivor.”
On Sunday, the Sileno family was joined by friends, extended family, superheroes, and local law enforcement as Noah finished his final round of chemo and rang the cancer-free bell.
The moment was one the family had been looking forward to for several years.
“Cancer can take away a lot of things, but it can’t take away hope,” Martha said. “It can’t take away the love of a little boy that has been through way too much at five years old.”
Although Noah is now in remission, they plan to continue to fundraise for childhood cancer research.
“The amount of children that we’ve met that are stricken with cancer has really, really shown us a new path,” said Noah’s dad Michael. “It also shows us how strong a community can be.”
Noah is not the first child to ring the cancer-free bell after a long journey with cancer.
A South Carolina five-year-old boy rang the cancer-free bell after three years of fighting childhood leukemia in March, and a baby girl’s mother in Oakland, California, rang the cancer-free bell on behalf of her daughter who beat cancer.
A Georgia boy was also declared cancer-free in time for Christmas in 2019.
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