BRANDON, Fla — An inseparable bond exists between two kids named Leo. One is a teenager about to head off to college, the other is on his way to kindergarten. But both Leos share one thing in common: they battled cancer and beat it!
Little Leo, Leo Wai, will follow big Leo, Leo Astacio, just about anywhere. Even around the diamond when it's 90 degrees outside.
“You’re so fast," big Leo yelled as the two rounded first base.
WATCH full report by Heather Leigh
“I always called big Leo like an oak tree, Leo walks in and little Leo is on him," said Mary Ann Massolio, the executive director of the 1Voice Foundation. "He will spot him coming down a path, and they have just realized they have a lot in common besides their name."
It's definitely more than just their love for sports, although that's a pretty big one.
“Hey, good catch!" said big Leo, as little Leo caught a baseball.
Childhood cancer is what really bonds them.
"When little Leo was on treatment, to be able to talk to big Leo about it, and have the family connect, and just say, 'You’ve got this buddy, I had this too, and we’ve got this together'—they could have a conversation that we couldn’t.”
"The relationship is very special, it means a lot," said Astacio. "I know it’s helpful for both of us, and I like that.”
The 1Voice Foundation is an organization that supports kids with cancer and their families. It helps connect them to the care they need to get through it all. That’s how the two Leos met.
“I could see myself in that scenario, being little and having the same type of cancer, wanting to play baseball, and I see myself in him," big Leo said. "I see he’s gonna get it through it too, and he'll pass it forward."
Big Leo was a tutor and camp counselor to little Leo at the 1Voice Academy, which is the first and only school in the country for children with cancer. Massolio started it to honor a dream her late son Jay had when he was also battling cancer. Jay desperately wanted to go to school.
Jay never got that opportunity. He did go through treatment and beat the cancer, but it was the treatment itself that was too much for his little body to handle.
“Because he ended up on the vent and so many other things, he developed aspergillosis, which again wouldn’t have happened if he didn’t have the toxicity of the treatment," said Massolio.
Many kids battling cancer can't do what other kids do because of their weakened immune systems. The academy provides a safe and clean place for kids with cancer to go and interact with other kids with cancer.
But one of the bigger missions the 1Voice Foundation is backing is a vaccine that could prevent kids from ever getting a certain type of leukemia.
Dr. Cameron Tebbi has been working on it for years.
“Dr. Tebbi has identified what he calls protein X, so he knows that if this baby born has protein X, that that baby will develop leukemia in their lifetime," said Massolio. "So now, his goal is to create and launch a vaccine so that baby—not every baby—but that baby would need to get that vaccine and prevent leukemia.”
It is still the number one diagnosis for pediatric cancer.
“There’s nothing more we would want than to bring those numbers down and eliminate them," Massolio said. "That would be astounding.”
Just like the bond between little Leo and big Leo.
“Is he your big brother?" I asked.
"I want him to! I want him to come home with me," little Leo said with a huge smile.
The 1Voice Foundation can't do its mission without community support. The non-profit based in Brandon not only needs donations, but volunteers as well.
Click here to visit their website.
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