In December 2022, Delilah Loya took to the field at SoFi Stadium as an honorary Los Angeles Rams cheerleader.
The 8-year-old Bakersfield girl had been battling Stage IV neuroblastoma since 2019 with a grueling regimen of chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiation treatments. But on that day, she lived a dream.
Her eyes shone as she shook yellow pompoms and ran along the turf in a custom uniform presented to her by the cheer team.
“This is the best day of my life,” she said in a video posted on Instagram. “I’m going to beat cancer because I’m really strong.”
Delilah fought fiercely. She died Sunday, two months shy of her 10th birthday, her mother Samantha Loya Serrata announced on social media.
“We will keep traveling and spreading your love and light all over the world,” Loya Serrata wrote in an Instagram post. “We will live for you because you were taken way too soon.”
Delilah was diagnosed at age 4 with neuroblastoma, a cancer that typically starts in developing nerve cells and usually affects children under the age of 5. Her family commuted regularly from their home in Bakersfield to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for treatment.
Delilah’s family documented their story on social media, where it drew the notice of influencer Isaiah Garza. In addition to Delilah’s day with the Rams cheerleaders, Garza also helped organize a meeting with Tom Higgenson, lead singer of the Plain White T’s. In January, Higgenson walked into Delilah’s hospital room playing her favorite song: “Hey There Delilah,” the tune for which she was named.
The family gave the same name to a nonprofit organization they started in March to help alleviate costs for families with children undergoing cancer treatment.
“You were too good for this world,” her mother wrote on Instagram. “Rest easy my sweet beautiful girl.”