Legendary basketball coach Dawn Staley has been hanging out with a young fan named Blakeleigh, a seven-year-old little girl who had survived cancer. The South Carolina Gamecocks head coach sat down with former First Lady Michelle Obama and opened up about how that young fan touched her heart.
Staley revealed that she met the young fan back in 2022 and even made necklaces with her, revealing that she has been wearing what Blakeleigh made for her ever since. This was why she often wears necklaces and bracelets even though they did not go well with whatever she was wearing.
“2022. I met this young girl with pediatric cancer. I was with a company that I have a partnership with, and they took me to just meet this young lady to give her this duck that does some incredible things. They took them through a scavenger hunt, and at the end of the scavenger hunt, they gave her her duck, and then they could make necklaces for their ducks. So I sat with her, and I used her color coordination of what she was making a necklace. When we were done, I wore it ever since because of her strength,” she told Michelle Obama. (56:18)
“We were sitting together, and she has cancer, but you would never know. You would never know the strength that she sat with that cancer with. Her parents were just a little bit away from her. So I wore this for three years,” she continued.
“Later on, like, I did this in May. We were trying to win a national championship that year, the next year, and she actually sent another one because this one was getting real beat down. She saw it. She was like, “She needs another one. Let me help her out.” And then, you know, young people give me bracelets with “grit” and “uncommon favor” and a lot of… and I wear it until it pops,” Staley added.
Blakeleigh received cancer treatment at UVA, Staley’s alma mater, and she and her family often watch the Gamecocks play. She eventually completed all of her cancer treatments, and Dawn Staley herself was there when she rang her cancer bell, signifying that her treatment was now officially over.
Blakeleigh Had Changed Dawn Staley’s Life
Dawn Staley has been very open about her admiration for Blakeleigh in various interviews, often admitting that she has wore the necklace that the young cancer survivor made her constantly and that she is aware they do not often go with whatever she was wearing that day.
The coaching legend has admitted that she will forever fell “indebted” to Blakeleigh and her family and that they have forever “changed” her life. The national championship-winning coach then declared that she will wear the necklaces and bracelets the cancer survivor made for her “until the beads fall off.”
Specifically, Blakeleigh Thompson had been battling leukemia most of her life, with the young fan forming a close bond with Dawn Staley as she went through her treatments.
Related:
