8-Year-Old Boy Who Found 'True Love' While Facing Terminal Cancer Dies 'Surrounded by Love,' His Mom Says
David Spisak, an 8-year-old boy who found his 'true love' while contending with terminal cancer, has died.
"Our little man's last moments were laying with his mommy and daddy in the middle of the night, with a house full of family, friends and loved ones after days of being surrounded by love," his mom, Amber Spisak, wrote in a Facebook group where she chronicled the young boy's cancer battle.
"This day was supposed to come about 9-10 months ago, but David just wasn't done living yet, so he made his own timeline and defied the rules," the post continued. "The almost 7 years of cancer were so very hard, but nothing like the last few days."
Amber wrote that the last clear thing the family heard the young boy from Chesapeake, Virginia say was. "David wants to be a hero."
"I'm not ready to say things happen for a reason or a message of rainbows and sunshine just yet, but our baby boy was a fighter, a beautiful soul, a force to be reckoned with and of all the things, he is most definitely a hero," she continued.
David was diagnosed with leukemia at age two. After undergoing extensive chemotherapy and receiving two transplants, David beat cancer three times. Then, in March, his cancer returned.
Facing this fourth diagnosis, David's parents made the decision to stop David's treatments and allow him to live a normal life away from hospitals and painful procedures.
Doctors predicted that without treatment, David would only live for four to six weeks, but months passed, and David began to look better. When he returned to school to start second grade in September, he met a girl who captured his heart.
He told his parents he had a "crush" on 7-year-old Ayla Andrews, a girl from art class.
"In art class, I told her I liked her and she just had a surprised face so we started dating," David told WTKR in November.
When David became too sick to attend school, Amber found notes from Ayla saying that she loved and missed him. So she reached out to Ayla's mom to plan a date to lift her son's spirits.
David brought Ayla a teddy bear and roses, and she pushed him around in his wheelchair, helped him bowl and shared pizza with him.
"She's definitely had an impact on his spirit, and I haven't seen this side of him in a long time," Amber told WTKR.
She added, "The best part was watching the way they just needed to be close to each other and their conversation never got shy or quiet. That was all they needed to be happy."
At the end of the date, David stood up from his wheelchair and walked for the first time in a month.
"He was just so determined for her, he really pushed himself for her," Amber told ABC News. "Once we realized that this wasn't the typical elementary school crush, once we saw this heartfelt connection that they have, we were so happy that she came into his life and that he came to her life for some reason."
