When the class phone rings, 4th graders at City View Elementary are exchanging heart-shaped candies and Valentine’s Day cards. The teacher nods his head and asks Evan Criado to go down to the office and bring his things.
His mom, Jacky Criado, stands in the office and tells him to hurry to the car. As they rush to the hospital, Jacky tells Evan he has a tumor.
“The first thing I asked my mom when she told me was if I was going to die,” Evan said. “At that moment I was scared out of my mind.”
In 2017, Evan was diagnosed with an astrocytoma. It is a kind of tumor that is found in the brain and spinal cord. When his doctors found the cancer, it was at stage two and he was 11 years old.
“Telling Ev he had a brain tumor was one of the hardest and scariest things I have ever had to do,” Jacky said. “When your fourth-grade child asks if he is going to die and you don’t know the answer it’s horrifying. All I knew to tell him was that I didn’t know what would happen, but if he did, I knew he would be with Jesus.”
To remove the tumor, Evan went through two brain surgeries. The first time was the hardest for him, and he had a long road to recovery where he relearned how to do basic life functions.
“It felt like I had gotten born again,” Evan said. “I had to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. Everything was just completely off.”
The community around Evan did everything they could to support him.
“It is incredible how in the most challenging moments revealed the strength and the support system we have,” Jacky said. “City View Elementary signed and colored posters, his football and basketball boys came to visit him in the hospital and even his teacher, Dee Coppock, came to our house to catch him up with his school work.”
Cappock said Evan’s never give up attitude is a testament to his family and support system.
“Evan always had a smile, even when he didn’t feel well,” Coppock said. “I always looked forward to going over and helping him. It was such an honor to be a part of his journey.”
After three years of treatments and doctor appointments, Evan officially became cancer-free on July 9, 2020.
“Tears came down my face when I found out,” Evan said. “I have never felt so relieved.”
Despite beating his tumor, Evan cannot play sports so he can remain healthy. However, he stays involved with Randall’s sports by taking on the manager role for the boy’s varsity basketball team. Basketball head coach Trevor Johnson has watched Evan all four years of his high school career.
“Evan is an unbelievable young man,” Johnson said. “He has been through so much in his life and still walks in with an unbelievable attitude toward life.”
Throughout his health journey, the biggest lesson Evan said he learned is to lean on God.
“Through all of this I learned that you can’t do anything without God,” Evan said. “It’s always going to be him, and it is so important to worship and live a life through him.”
