AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — Reeve Melugin is nearly five years old, and for most of his life, he has been known as ‘Super Reeve.’
Diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in October 2017, Super Reeve has never slowed down. Reeve has been in and out of hospitals for treatment since he was a baby, but not for much longer.
Reeve has been in remission since November 2017. He is cancer-free and will finish his treatment in this coming January.
“One thing I know that he’s super excited about finishing up treatment is getting his port out. He’s got a port here on his left side and it’s kind of all that he’s ever known and so for him, he’s really excited about that,” Reeve’s dad, Jordan Melugin, said.
“He’s been awesome. He is active, he is full of energy, full of life,” Melugin said. “He loves life. He’s passionate. He just started playing baseball again. So he’s excited about that.”
Jordan and Brenna Melugin said they never wanted their kids to grow up, but the past three years could not go by quickly enough.
“I mean, he’s one that has—he’s had to go through all the physical things. So we’re excited for him that he won’t have to get poked with a needle anymore, and go through all those types of things,” Melugin said. “But just to know that we can get back to, I think, some—some semblance of normalcy, and we’re excited about that.”
2020 has certainly posed unique challenges—but Super Reeve is strong.
“All of his blood count numbers and everything has been really strong but of course, we’re super cautious and just trying to be proactive in the ways that we keep him safe and in our entire family,” Melugin said when asked about the risks of the coronavirus pandemic.
“You know, it’s funny, we’ve been saying that Reeve and of course, other kiddos, with you know, pediatric cancer, they’ve been wearing masks since before masks are cool. So, you know, they’re, they’re the trendsetters. They’re the ones that have been doing this,” Melugin said.
“So for our family, it was almost like not much really changed, because it was something we were so used to doing, and accustomed to.”
Super Reeve also landed a gig this summer with Children’s Miracle Network, Walmart, and Sam’s Club to help raise money for local kids.
“That’s what we love about Children’s Miracle Network is that all of the dollars donated stay to local kids, not just those with pediatric cancer, but other needs and medical needs that may come about,” Melugin added. “His picture on there was really neat, but we just want to always encourage people and—we know, you know we’re in the middle of a pandemic— finances can be tight. But just you know, this is a family that’s been very much impacted by people’s giving. So we just want to encourage everybody else to do that.”
The Melugins said CMN also helped reeve beat cancer.
“Without CMN, we probably wouldn’t have made it through this process just financially,” Melugin said. “You know, these are the types of things we’ve talked about this with you before, where you never expect something like this to happen to you—and when it does happen, you’re left with a lot of questions and you’re, you know, can we afford this what’s going to happen? And Children’s Miracle Network stepped right in and has just blessed us abundantly, and they’ve been with us every step of the way. So without them, I don’t know where we’d be.”
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