Although he had been diagnosed with sickle cell anemia at birth, Caesar Sant was born to prove the odds all wrong. He started playing violin at the age of 2, at four-years-old, he was doing things that most adult musicians dream of- playing Vivaldi and Tchaikovsky on his violin. Additionally, he had mastered six languages, English, Chinese, Russian, Hebrew, Greek, and his parent’s native Portuguese, and third-grade math was a breeze. To simply say that he was a prodigy is an understatement. However, at the age of 5, tragedy struck, and he had his first stroke, followed by a second six months later.
“I did my best to get better, but it was very scary because they put a bunch of needles in me and I could not move,” said Sant about his early childhood in an interview with the Winston-Salem Journal. “This year my father will have the money, I hope so, to take me somewhere so I can have my transplant.”
To date, Sant has had three strokes, each more devastating than the last and the young virtuoso is in need of an expensive bone marrow transplant that will help with his condition.
Sant’s last stroke almost caused him permanent damage causing the young musician to have to relearn how to walk, in addition to having to relearn how to play the violin.
“Music makes me happy,” Sant said. “I practice a lot. I love it so much.”
As a homeschool student, Sant practices violin for two-three hours a day for :30 minutes at a time. “For a child to keep fighting and come back, you have to give them a reason to stay strong. Music was his reason,” Sant said. “I’m always saying that the violin saved his life.”
Sant and his family are still fighting to successfully secure the half a million dollars needed for his transplant. A Go Fund me page was set up for Sant, and still remains, has raised nearly $44,000.00.
“We have everything — the blood, the donor [Sant’s little sister] — we just don’t have the money,” Sant’s father stated in the interview. “We really have to do this transplant this year.”
To donate to this amazing young man, click here. Check out a brief example of this virtuoso play below.
