TAMPA (WFLA) — A 10-year-old boy from Hillsborough County used his voice to show his appreciation for the hospital staff that helped him through his battle with cancer.
The young patient wrote and performed his song before leaving Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.
“This is my goodbye song to everyone who cared for me,” Elijah Cephas sings in his song of gratitude, joy and hope.
Elijah’s Song could be heard throughout the cancer unit at the bell ringing ceremony marking the end of his treatment on May 24.
Doctors diagnosed the 10-year-old boy with an aggressive type of bone cancer after a painful lump on his right knee wouldn’t go away last September.
“When someone sits there and says your stomach drops, that was actually the first time you have that feeling,” Elijah’s mom Sheena Cephas said.
The first time her son met musical therapist Rachel Beverly was during his first chemotherapy treatment.
“I was really sick,” Elijah said. “I didn’t want to move at all.
“So I did a session where Elijah just passively engaged by listening to the music and focusing on the calming music I was providing,” Beverly said.
“Then she sung it and I just went to sleep,” Elijah said.
From there, a friendship was born that ultimately led to this musical collaboration.
“Let’s just leave them with joy,” Elijah’s mom said.
She came up with the idea to write the song.
“But Elijah was so thoughtful in every single lyric and line of the song that he wrote because he knew exactly what he wanted to say,” Beverly said.
Elijah said he wants other pediatric cancer patients to know they are not alone as they go through this journey.
“I used to think that I was alone. That I wouldn’t get through this and eventually I got through it,” he said. “No matter how hard it seems you can always do it.”
Music may be in this fifth grader’s future. He told News Channel 8 he wants to start his own rock band.
“You were always there for me when I needed you most,” Elijah sings in his song, “and it helped me heal.”
Watch the full video here.
