BEAVER, Pa. — A mother’s intuition led a Beaver family to Children’s Hospital, and eventually they were told their 12-year-old son had a rare cancer on his brain stem. His prognosis was 12 to 16 months.
“I remember the first question I asked my parents: ‘am I going to die.’ And that fear never has ever taken over me again since that day,” Elias Kazas told Channel 11.
Rather, his love of basketball has kept this Beaver Area senior moving forward, one shot and one step at a time.
“When you actually hear the confirmation, ‘yes, it’s cancer. Yes, it’s Anaplastic Astrocytoma Grade 3 and we will do everything we can do, but you are probably going to lose him in 12 to 16 months,’” said George Kazas, Elias’s dad.
The family spent three months at St. Jude’s Hospital, where Elias had seven weeks of radiation for a total of 35 rounds, only to return home to undergo 1,134 doses of chemotherapy.
Despite the grueling treatment, the tumor wasn’t making much of a change, and he was forced to stop treatment as it was leading to liver and kidney damage.
“He goes ‘I know I am going to die and that’s okay, but what I want is I really want to play basketball again and graduate with my friends,’” George Kazas said.
While his body was unable to continue the treatment, his mind was only on one thing.
“I knew it was going to be my last time; it was hard to say goodbye. They told me I would never play again when I first got sick as a 12-year-old, to hear that is hard. I had pretty much just started, I just knew these last four years were going to be the last chance, the last ride, so I did everything I could do to make it happen,” Elias told Channel 11.
Pushing his doctors, pushing his coaches, he finally made it back on the basketball court.
“He truly is a walking miracle. His tumor still exists, his cancer still exists, and yet he still exists six years later,” George said.
His mindset and perception of life and death impact his entire Beaver community, never knowing if the next day will be his last.
“It doesn’t scare me as much anymore, because if it happens, it happens, until that day comes, I will live like it was never there,” Elias said.
That next step is walking the graduation stage with his friends proudly wearing that cap and gown.
“I’m going to be happy, for once, it’s going to give me the goodbye I wanted,” Elias said.
As he enters his next chapter of life heading to personal barber school, these final high school moments aren’t just a sign of his achievement, but every battle he won.
To round out the year, Elias was the recipient of this year’s John Challis Memorial Award, even getting to meet Challis’s parents. It’s an award named after the Freedom graduate who gained national attention fighting cancer as a high school athlete. He died shortly after graduating in 2009, but his story still inspires many.
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