In March 2015, Leonay developed a fever that wouldn’t go away. Her doctor in Jamaica, where her family lives, prescribed medicine, but it had little effect. When the fever persisted, Leonay’s mother, Virginia, insisted the doctor look deeper. Tests soon revealed Leonay suffered from neuroblastoma. Soon after, Leonay and her mother arrived at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
![St. Jude patient Leonay](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-leonay/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_embedcolumn/par-1/cnt_image.img.16.medium.jpg/1473455603047.jpg)
![Leonay laughs](/content/sites/www/en_US/home/about-st-jude/stories/meet-our-patients/meet-leonay/jcr:content/par-1/cnt_embedcolumn/par-2/cnt_image_1923025283.img.16.medium.jpg/1474916346566.jpg)
Leonay is a silly, happy girl who loves to dance, knows all the songs from Frozen and likes to pick out her outfits each morning.
At St. Jude, Leonay’s treatment included chemotherapy, surgery, radiation therapy and an antibody treatment. Leonay thinks her doctor is a giant teddy bear and she loves her nurses. Leonay recently completed treatment and is back home in Jamaica. She visits St. Jude every three months for checkups.
Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20% to more than 80% since it opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90%, and we won’t stop until no child dies from cancer.
"St. Jude has been our family. They make everything better."
Leonay's mom, Virginia
Help our families focus on their sick child, not medical bills.
When you donate monthly, your gift means families, like Leonay's, never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live.
Meet more patients
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Meet Rinoa
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Meet Adalyn
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Meet Aspen
Aspen was not yet two when diagnosed with neuroblastoma. She was treated in the Philippines but six months later, the cancer was spreading so she was referred to St. Jude.
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Meet Eliza
Eliza’s pediatrician referred her to an ophthalmologist after testing her eyes. In turn, she was referred to St. Jude as a tumor was visible in her right eye.
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Meet Abraham
After a CT scan revealed Abraham had a mass on his brain, identified as a cancerous brain tumor called a medulloblastoma, his family turned to St. Jude for help.
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Meet Ava
At 6 years old, Ava had a lump on her neck and tests showed she had more lumps in her belly. Tests revealed that she had a cancerous tumor and was referred to St. Jude.
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Meet Luna
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Meet Gideon
After Gideon was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma, he was referred to St. Jude for immediate treatment.
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Meet Eri'Elle
Eri’Elle was just two years old when her troubles started. Her mother took her to a pediatrician and insisted they run tests to get to the bottom of her baby’s symptoms.