SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio boy is hoping to give back to other children in need following his aggressive battle with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

• 8-year-old giving back after cancer battle
• Blood donations came from South Texas blood drive
• 509 people donated to help other children in need

Dev Reddy, 8, has been living with the blood cancer since July 2017. Last year, Reddy spent six months on extracorporeal membrance oxygenation life support or ECMO. The treatment uses a pump to circulate blood through an artificial lung back into the bloodstream, which required him to need multiple daily blood transfusions.

"There is a lot internal and external bleeding and that's why you need a lot of blood and that's where the blood donation helped," said Shernaz Sanjana, Reddy’s aunt.

Many of those donations came from a drive the family did with the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center in San Antonio.

"He needed around 300 units and we got almost 1,500 of them which was amazing," Sanjana said.

Hi family credits those who donated during the February 2018 drive for saving the child's life during a difficult time. Reddy is now home and remains on a ventilator as his lungs continue to heal. His family says he is close to remission. 

"We think every human deserves the same chance at life and this [current] blood drive is an amazing opportunity to pay it forward," said Ami Reddy, mother.

Between February 14 to 17 the family hosted a blood drive in the boy's honor. However, this time the donations weren't for Dev, but for other children in need.

"This is just a way of saying thank you. We are trying to give back to the community. We are trying to educate more people that it is important [to donate]," said Sanjana.

According to STBTC, a total of 634 people donated as of Saturday night.