Jonny Leung was caring from start to end.
The 21-year-old Binghamton University student from Mahopac, N.Y., died over spring break after a 17-month bout with brain cancer. Despite leaving school for months at a time for surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, he survived five months longer than predicted because he was young and a fighter, doctors said.
“He was always happy, always making people happy,” Leung’s mother Eillie Leung said. “He was in very good spirits. Didn’t complain at all, even until the last day.”
On a trip to New York City, 10-year-old Leung once asked Mimi Yudianto, a long-time friend of Leung’s mother, if he could stop in a supermarket. He wanted to use his savings money, not for himself but for an anniversary gift for his grandparents. He bought them roasted pig.
“He was caring and kind, always helpful,” Yudianto said. “He was willing to go out of his way for everyone.”
Leung transferred here from Westchester Community College in spring of 2006. He wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and study electrical engineering.
Good friend Sean Chang said he and Leung would spend some nights scrambling to catch up on procrastinated work.
“We hung out all the time playing Wii video games and with Nerf guns,” Chang, a BU senior majoring in history and politics, philosophy and law, said. “Some Fridays and Saturdays, we’d stay up playing wiffle ball in the halls in Marcy Hall.”
When his friend’s car broke down on the way back from a school break, Leung, as usual, reached out a helping hand. He drove four hours round trip in the middle of the night to pick up his friends and return them to campus.
“He was one of the most happy-go-lucky people I ever met,” Chang said. “One of the nicest people.”
Leung had an older sister, who graduated from BU, and a younger sister. Growing up he liked anime, “Family Guy” and the Food Network, according to his mother. Fast food at Taco Bell and White Castle were among his favorites.
Leung liked sports such as baseball and wrestling. In high school he joined the high school Italian club, and he organized and participated in a breast cancer walk.
He was diagnosed in November 2007 with pineal glioblastoma cancer. While recovering from an operation last autumn, the BU student couldn’t resist caring for Yudianto. Whenever he’d see her, he’d still ask if she needed anything to eat or drink.
“He didn’t let his illness change the way he was,” Yudianto said.