Beating cancer demands the determination of a warrior. Adults struggle with the numerous rounds of treatment when facing this awful disease, yet despite his young age, Kristian Thomas has prevailed over cancer.

A video of Kristian, 2 years old, and his father, Kenny Thomas, dancing together recently went viral. They weren’t just having fun; they were celebrating Kristian’s 11-month cancer-free checkup.

Kristian was diagnosed with leukemia as a newborn in June of 2018. He went into complete remission in November 2018 after five rounds of treatment. He has had frequent check-ups since, and he is still cancer-free about a year later!

What makes this story even more touching and one-of-a-kind is that Kristian was born with Down syndrome, often known as trisomy 21. This syndrome is produced by a mistake during the sperm or egg creation process in which an additional chromosome 21, or a portion of chromosome 21, remains in the germ cell and is transferred to every cell in the new baby’s body.

Trisomy 21 raises the likelihood of acquiring leukemia by up to 20-fold, in addition to causing a number of anomalies such as mental retardation and distinctive facial traits. Unfortunately, children with trisomy 21 who acquire leukemia have a substantially greater mortality rate than the overall population. On the plus side, children with trisomy 21 who survive cancer are considerably less likely to acquire subsequent cancer than the general population.