Still brings message of fighting, overcoming the odds
TOWAMENCIN >> When NFL football player Devon Still’s then 4-year-old daughter, Leah, was diagnosed in 2014 with stage 4 cancer, the doctors said there was little chance she’d beat the odds.
“I appreciated the doctor doing his job and coming into that room and telling me the truth about how the odds were against us, but that doctor didn’t know what my daughter was made of. That doctor didn’t know what I was made of,” said Still, who was the speaker at this year’s Indian Creek Foundation Celebrity Event, held March 31 at Dock Mennonite Academy.
“He didn’t know that I had been beating the odds my whole life,” Still said, telling about growing up in poverty and at 17 seeing someone killed, but going on to win a four-year scholarship to Penn State, being the first in his family to graduate college, being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2012 and returning to football after injuries, including after having been told he would never play again because of a blood clot, but overcoming. He is currently rehabbing from an injury last season while playing for the Houston Texans.
“The problem with a lot of people is that you let strangers come into your life and tell you what you can and can’t do based on what the odds say or what a book says, but they don’t know what you’ve been through in your life,” Still
said. “They don’t know that you already have what it takes to overcome whatever you’re facing right now.”
During Leah’s successful nine-month battle against the cancer, Still put his football career on hold to be with her. The Bengals put him on the practice squad, so he continued to have medical benefits and not be required to travel with the team.
“You can’t give up,” Still said. “A lot of people’s problem is they give up right before their break-through.”
After a seven-hour surgery to remove Leah’s tumor, followed by initial treatments, he said, they expected to hear from the doctors she was cancer-free, but instead were told that the cancer had spread.
Following additional treatments, though, they were finally told the cancer was gone, he said.
“If we would’ve gave up when the doctors told us that the cancer spread all over her body, we would’ve never got to that point,”
Still said.
“You may not understand why you’re going through what you’re going through right now, but it’s bigger than you,” Still said. “This moment that you’re going
through right now is what’s gonna take you to that place you say you want to be. The only thing is you can’t give up before you get there.”
Following his talk, Still answered questions from the audience, including how he has stayed motivated.
“I grew up in struggle,” he said. “Every time life knocked me down, it was really only knocking me down to my comfort zone because that’s what I was used to and I knew that if I kept getting back up and kept fighting, I would be able to experience a life that I could only dream about when I was a kid, so nothing was gonna stop me then and nothing’s gonna stop me now from being able to provide for my family.”
In answer to what he plans to do after his football career, he said he would like to continue doing motivational programs.
“All it takes is for you to decide not to give up one time and you can change your life for the better forever,” Still said.
Still has also started the Still Strong Foundation to assist other families dealing with pediatric cancer.
“We didn’t want the fight to be over with just because my daughter was okay,” he said. “We decided to start a foundation that helps families pay for their household bills, so that they can spend more time in the hospital with their kids instead of worrying about losing their homes or losing their vehicles.”
Information is available at www.stillstrongfoundation.org.
“This was absolutely awesome,” Brett Wells, Indian Creek Foundation’s director of development, said following Still’s talk. “Some absolutely remarkable things were happening in this room tonight while Devon
“All it takes is for you to decide not to give up one time and you can change your life for the better forever.” — Devon Still
was talking. I think this is exactly what we were hoping to accomplish with this event.”
Totals for the amount raised by the evening were not yet available, Wells said earlier in the evening, but it was at least $30,000.
“Through connections to businesses, congregations, donors, and families, Indian Creek Foundation strives to include those we serve as valued members of the community. Whether providing support in a residential setting, independence through supported
employment, a few hours of respite for dedicated caregivers, or one-of-a-kind dual diagnosis services we are ready to respond to the needs of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families,” according to Indian Creek Foundation information.
Dean Stoesz, the organization’s CEO, said it serves more than 100 people in residential and community services; more than 125 in day and vocational services; and 800 to 900 per year with behavioral health and autism services.
Information is available at www.indcreek.org.