Former NFL Player Devon Still Was Scared to Have More Children After Daughter Battled Cancer

Former NFL player Devon Still recently opened up about how his oldest daughter Leah Still‘s battle with cancer temporarily turned him away from having more children. Devon shares Leah with his wife, Asha Still.

Leah, now 12 years old, was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer when she was four, and medical professionals gave her a 50% survival rate.

According to the American Cancer Society, neuroblastoma is a rare cancer “that starts in early forms of nerve cells.” Traces of this are located in the embryo and fetus. The causes of neuroblastoma are unknown, and the site clams that it is rare for it to be inherited from a parent. Neuroblastoma can be treated in various ways, including surgery and chemotherapy.

Following Leah’s diagnosis, Devon shared his family’s journey on his social media platform and with news outlets. Leah would ultimately go into remission in 2015. During a January 5 interview with Today.com, the former football player revealed why Leah’s battle left him “traumatized.” Devon told the publication days after Asha gave birth to their third daughter, Amya,

“I thought that something was wrong with me. So I was scared to have kids again, because I was traumatized from what I witnessed, and I never really dealt with that trauma. I (also) didn’t want to face the fear of whether it was something wrong with me if I had another kid and they were medically ill or fragile.”

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Devon added that Asha eventually caught on and asked why he was hesitant about having more children despite them officially tying the knot in 2016. The 33-year-old explained that they had an in-depth conversation about it, which included Leah’s past cancer struggle and how it made him feel. Devon stated that this led to Asha comforting him.

After that discussion, Devon and Asha began trying to have another baby. The couple had a second daughter Aria, in 2019, but Asha suffered a miscarriage in 2020. Devon disclosed that following that event, he and Asha “decided to process” what happened before trying to “expand” their family again.

The duo would announce in June 2022 that they were expecting their third daughter. Devon and Asha welcomed Amya on Jan. 4. A day after Amya’s birth, the couple uploaded a video on their respective Instagram accounts of Leah and Aria meeting their younger sister.

Devon told Today.com that fans’ reactions to the clip were overall positive, and it gave hope to those with cancer that there is life after the disease.