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Devon Still

Source: Getty / Getty

At this year’s 2015 Espys’ awards, Cincinnati Bengals Defensive tackle, Devon and his daughter, Leah Still will be honored with the Jimmy V Perseverance Award. The award is not just limited to sports related people, it’s also awarded to non sport people. This award was named after Jimmy Valvano. He was a great College Basketball coach and after that, he was a broadcaster for ESPN and ABC. He was was the 1993 recipient who was battling cancer. Valvano also had and acceptance speech that became legendary with those words that he said, “Don’t give up… Don’t ever give up!”®
The struggles that Devon has faced since her diagnoses in 2014 wasn’t just limited to the Still family, that was a struggle that hit the NFL league and the fans of the sport just the same.

With his public status being what it is, Devon took to the Instagram and other social media outlets and shared his 4 year old’s battle with her stage-4 neuroblastoma. He wanted to show the world what the battle of pediatric cancer was like, the struggles, the awareness. His name, football number and jersey helped raise a large amount for pediatric cancer research too.
Devon has battled with his job along with caring for her young daughter. He was cut from the team in 2014 and than later brought back as inactive on reserves. It was something else when the team decided to put him back in onto the active rooster… it was so he could continue to give his daughter the care she needed.
Currently, Leah is doing stem cells transplants and although she was set to recover, she has had a little setback… Devon posted on IG the other day, “I need some prayers sent up for Leah tonight! We hit a pretty serious complication from the stem cell transplant called VOD. They caught it early so hopefully it gives doctors a better chance of stopping it from getting aggressive. As you can imagine our minds are all over the place but we’re going to try and remain positive! #LeahStrong #WaitingForTheDayEverythingReturnsToNormal”
“This award is a testament to the inspiration Devon and Leah are to all the families who are suffering from similar circumstances,” said executive producer Maura Mandt. “It is our hope that with this award we can send them more strength as they face this latest challenge.”
Today in his post on IG, Devon is showing how grateful he is, “Very thankful and honored for my daughter and I to receive this award… now we definitely have to get her feeling better so she can make the trip out LA! #LeahStrong”
Remember some of the other past winners of this award too… Eric LeGrand, Anthony Robles, George Karl, Dick and Rick Hoyt and Stuart Scott.
Remembering when Stuart Scott won the Jimmy V award and his moving speech. His speech had people in tears.
Watch Stuart Scott’s award winning moment of the Jimmy V award.