A Chapel Hill, North Carolina teen has battled cancer for years but has managed to graduate high school with a GPA higher than a 4.0 while dealing with multiple surgeries and treatment.
North Carolina’s ABC 11 reported that East Chapel Hill High School graduate David Owens have been battling cancer since middle school. Throughout high school David was in and out of UNC Children’s Hospital.
The young man has had to deal with an extreme form of cancer that has no real diagnosis. The cancer has worn down his body making him reliant on a wheelchair.
“Because of the type of tumor he has, there is no end date. His doctors are doing whatever comes up —- they’re working with it and keeping him alive,” said David’s mother Arlene Owens.
According to ABC 11, David had radiation, brain surgery, two spinal surgeries, two bone marrow transplants, and two rounds of chemo. When he felt well enough to work, David would do school work from his hospital bed.
His determination earned him the nickname “David the Giant Killer.”
“I was super afraid that I was going to die,” he said. “I’ll never be able to do all the things I dreamed about doing when I get older.”
David’s dream of becoming a marine biologist is just a little closer to becoming a reality now. The future marine biologist wants to attend Duke University or University of North Carolina Wilmington to continue his studies.
