Jimmy Spagnolo just finished his fourth round of chemotherapy.
It lasted a year.
He’s only 6.
Jimmy got to celebrate his medical milestone on Feb. 2 by ringing a bell at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC.
Jimmy danced. Boy, did he dance.
He could barely stop jumping and wiggling and grinning as family and staff members helped him celebrate, loudly.
Caught up in the moment, Jimmy lifted his Superman shirt and patted his little tummy.
Can you blame him?
His family called it Jimmy’s “battle cry.”
“We all came alive in that moment,” his family wrote on the Facebook page where they’ve been sharing his journey.
Doctors found an inoperable tumor on Jimmy’s brain when he was just 4 months old. It’s still there but smaller than it once was. Doctors hope Jimmy will be able to live with it.
“It’s one victory notch in our belts, seven years later,” Jimmy’s mom, Lacie Spagnolo, told CBS Pittsburgh. “Will we have many more? You bet we will.”
According to tradition at the children’s hospital, Jimmy clanged the bell signifying that a patient is either cancer-free or has reached some type of milestone in treatment.
“The bell signifies so many emotions – it can signify the sound of tears, strength, fear, courage, doubt, satisfaction, relief and happiness all coming through as one as people around them cheer this accomplishment,” the hospital explained on its Facebook page Friday, where it shared Jimmy’s video.
“The sound of that bell resonates in more ways than one.”
And how it’s resonated.
The video of Jimmy’s big moment has been viewed more than 200,000 times on the hospital’s Facebook page alone.
His story has been featured on national TV and noted in national publications in the United States and around the world, all in the last few days.
Boy, can Jimmy dance.
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