When you're fighting a life-threatening disease, you don't expect to stumble upon true love.
But 12-year-old Stella Usiak and Lucas Lowe did just that.
The New York kids have forged a special bond while fighting Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, having been there for each other through remissions, relapses and bone marrow transplants, to name just a few.
"She's had a crush on me for a while now, and I've had a crush on her, so her and me are boyfriend and girlfriend now," Lucas told WGRZ.com.
Adorably, despite the fact that they haven’t even hit their teens yet, they both seem to know what to look for in the opposite sex.
Lucas describes Stella as kind and nice, "like a woman should be”, while Stella believes Lucas is nothing short of “a gentleman.”
As she said, “he worries about how I'm feeling just like I worry about how he feels.”
While many parents would be anxious about pre-teens getting so attached to each other, Lucas and Stella’s parents are delighted that they’ve found strength in each other.
"It was like this cute little old couple, sitting on the porch. It's very rare that kids their age could kind of have that sort of compassion for each other," Stella’s mum Jennifer Usiak told WGRZ.com.
Meanwhile, Lucas’s mum Maureen Warren reckons age needs to be put aside once caner is involved.
“Cancer teaches you, you are not guaranteed tomorrow,” she said.
But while their experiences have made them more mature than the average 12-year-old, the kids haven’t lost their adorable innocence.
"She just wants a boy to like her. She just wants to have somebody make her feel special," said Stella’s mum, Jennifer.
And it’s pretty clear that Lucas likes her more than a bit.
"We're not really supposed to kiss without a mask but she does it anyway," said Lucas.
The romantic young man even gave Stella a ring for Valentine’s Day, proving that he’ll be there for her in sickness and in health. “It says ‘you are my sunshine, my only sunshine’, and yeah, it means a lot,” Stella said.
You can watch a video of this touching love story below, but be warned: you’ll well up!
