Young Cancer Survivor Now Has New Outlook On Life

WEST POINT, Miss. (WCBI)- In recognition of World Cancer Day, we’re highlighting a 10-year-old from West Point who fought and defeated her battle with cancer.

You may remember, it was just over a year ago when we first told you about Lila Usry’s Leukemia diagnosis.

“For fun I like to go outside and jump on my trampoline and play outside with my friends,” said Usry.

On the outside she may seem like your ordinary 5th grader, but in reality Lila has endured more than many other people her age.

“Leukemia picked the wrong girl to fight with,” said Usry.

She’s a cancer survivor.

In June of 2017 she was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Lukeima.

“When I was diagnosed with cancer, I thought it was a bad version of the flu or something like that,” the 10-year-old recalled.

However, I’m really, it was worse than that.

Lila had to go through five rounds of chemotherapy in her fight with cancer and even had to shave her head multiple times.

However, throughout the process, her best friend Willa Grennan was right there with her every step of the way, even shaving her own head to show her support.

“She said that she was going to have cancer, chemo, I asked her if she was going to have to shave her head, and she said yes, and I said I’d do it with her,” said Greenan. “Immediately, I knew I was gonna do that.”

After going toe-to-toe with her disease and being in the hospital for more than 300 days, Lila finally got the news she’d been waiting to hear.

The cancer is gone.

Lila said the intense battle has now given her a new outlook on life.

“Every morning when I look in the mirror I remember, oh wait, I shaved my head a couple months ago, I am a cancer survivor, I did have cancer,” said Usry. I am a survivor. It’s not that big of a chance that it’ll ever come back again so I’m just going to enjoy the days that I have.”

“She deserves it,” said Heather Usry, Lila’s mom. “She deserves the term survivor after going through something so scary and so hard.”

When Lila made her return back to West Point in October 2018, she was welcomed home with a parade.

People filled the streets to shower her with lots of love, showing their support for the cancer survivor.