Keeping it fierce, #LeahStrong! NFL player Devon Still‘s 5-year-old daughter, Leah, who made headlines for courageously battling cancer in the past year, walked the runway at the Kids Rock! Fashion Show on Thursday, Sept. 10, in NYC.
Little Leah, known by her many fans as Leah Strong, dominated the runway at the Skylight at Moynihan Station for her New York Fashion Week appearance, wearing a faded denim button-down and jeans. At one point, she completed her walk with a cute impromptu twirl.
She later reemerged on the runway in a plaid dress, puffy vest, and cute headband to accessorize her hair, which is slowly growing back after several rounds of chemotherapy.
The youngster’s victorious lap down the catwalk came after an emotional, arduous year of battling cancer. In June 2014, Leah was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma, and had a 50 percent chance of surviving. This past March, her cancer went into remission, and her most recent scan from late July showed that she is still cancer-free.
“She’s the toughest person I’ve ever met and she has the mindset that nothing will hold her down,” her dad, former Cincinnati Bengals player Devon Still, said in July in a promo video for Leah’s Jimmy V. Perseverance Award at the 2015 ESPYS. While his daughter was still too sick to accept the award herself before the athlete-studded crowd, her father gave a rousing, emotional speech about Leah’s courage in the face of illness.
“At the age of 4, my daughter hadn’t even began to understand what life was all about,” the emotional defensive lineman, 26, told his peers. “I remember one night in the hospital, she just started putting things in her stomach and putting it in mine. She said, ‘Dad, I’m taking the cancer from me and giving it all to you.’ I started breaking down right there.”
Leah’s proud father was in the audience of the Kids Rock! event on Thursday. In an interview with Today‘s Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb that same day, the football pro said his daughter’s recovery was remarkable. “She’s doing a lot better,” he told the co-hosts. “Her health has made a complete 180, and hopefully will continue to improve.”
Still is currently an NFL free agent after his team cut him this past Saturday. The Bengals kept the Penn State alum on its roster in 2014 so that he would be able to pay for Leah’s treatment with his health benefits.
