WACO, Texas (FOX 44) – 19-year-old Blain LeNoir received big help to pursue his college career after years of battling Leukemia.
Blain was given a $10,000 scholarship through Northwestern Mutual’s 2022 Childhood Cancer Survivor program.
The Scholarship aims to ease the financial burden for families who undergo childhood cancer treatments.
Northwestern Mutual Foundation president, Steven Radke says, “Childhood cancer robs children and their families of far too much, and that should not include the opportunity to pursue their dreams of a college degree.”
Blain was diagnosed with cancer in November of 2015. At the time he was 11 years old playing competitive baseball. What his family thought was a typical baseball tournament turned into a scare.
After 3 games in 24 hours his family noticed a large bump on the side of his neck. Doctors diagnosed him with T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.
Blain was technically cancer free on December 24th 2015, just a little over a month after his diagnosis. However, he had over 4 years of treatment to battle the disease and the treatments took a permanent toll on his body.
While he couldn’t play baseball at the level he wanted, he did win a state championship with Valley Mills High School. Today, he plays golf and shoots in the low 70’s.
Blain wants to encourage those walking through a similar season, “I’ve really tried to get to speak with anybody who is going through something similar or a parent whose kid is going through something similar. Anything I can do to help.”
Blain has not allowed cancer to keep him from the two things he loves the most, baseball and golf.
Now he works at a golf course and coaches a 13U travel baseball team. He also attends McLennan Community College online.
His goal is to attend LSU online next year through his scholarship. A scholarship that has helped him tremendously.
Looking forward, Blain plans on working in the family business of agriculture or sports administration.
Although as of today, his dream job is to be the athletic director of a school like LSU.
With a large family, Blain had many supporters during his battle with leukemia. Now, he is grateful to Northwestern Mutual for supporting him as well.