Demario Davis is celebrating a big win in his daughter's health.
The New Orleans Saints linebacker opens up in a new interview with TMZ Sports about 15-month-old Carly-Faith's remission, after she was diagnosed with retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer, earlier this year.
"I'm a person that just never try to take anything for granted and to know what she's been through, even to the point of having to lose her eye, but her body is free of cancer," said Davis, 31, in the interview published Monday.
According to Mayo Clinic, "retinoblastoma is the most common form of cancer affecting the eye in children," and can "occur in one or both eyes." It begins in the retina and "most commonly affects young children, but can rarely occur in adults," the group explains.
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In his interview with TMZ Sports, Davis expressed his gratitude for "being able to use" Carly-Faith's story to "bring awareness to a lot of families that probably wouldn't have known about it if it wasn't for us going through it. Probably saved them that same unfortunate situation that we had."
He also touched on the adorable video of his baby girl celebrating the Saints' victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last weekend. (After this past Sunday's game against the San Francisco 49ers, the team is ranked first in the NFC South conference, with a 7-2 standing.)
"All my kids, after a win, most of the time they always screaming, 'WhoDat, WhoDat!' and singing the chant. But seeing her swing her arms like that, she was just like, 'Let's go, that's a big win!' You could just see the energy and excitement," said Davis, who also has two older daughters and a son: Summer-Joy, 4, Roman-Parker, 5, and Bailey-Grace, 7. "It's just a reminder of how blessed we are."
"She's blessed — she's got blessed doctors, we got a lot of resources around us. And she's an amazing child. We're just anxious as parents to see if God is gonna take her eye what is He gonna restore her with, what is He gonna give her because we know He's not just gonna take something without giving a double portion back," added the pro football player of himself and wife Tamela.
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Davis' update comes a little over two weeks after he and his wife spoke to NOLA.com about their daughter's condition, revealing that they first noticed a glare on her left eye a few months after Carly-Faith was born and learned of her tumor this past May. They are now dedicated to raising awareness about retinoblastoma, are helping raise funds for families dealing with pediatric cancer and have donated Carly-Faith's eye to cancer research.
" 'There's no way to salvage that eye because she's already completely blind,' " Tamela told the outlet of what doctors said to her and what went into their decision to have the eye removed and replaced with a prosthetic. " 'And in order to prevent the tumor from growing, this is your best decision.' "
And they are focusing on the positives, in the form of a supportive community and Carly-Faith's health now. "As we left the hospital with our daughter," Davis said, "I just looked at all the mothers and parents that were huddled around their kids' beds that were in a lot worse situation than we were in."
Added Tamela, "When you're impacted by something directly, it hits you a different way. So as I walked out of that hospital and I passed all of those beds, I was like, 'We have to do something. This is another platform that God has granted us, this is another part of our story. And we have to be able to utilize this for good.' "
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