The Gym Was His Escape. Then It Became His Way to Give Back.

For years, he was just the shy guy in the back of the class. Then his story changed the gym — and helped save lives.

A young girl, with a breathing mask covering her nose and mouth, is surrounded by several people dressed in medical equipment and face masks. She is lying down on a table while receiving medical treatment..

Juno, age 8, during treatment for a rare and aggressive leukemia. She spent nearly three years in and out of the hospital.

August 25, 2025

By: Emma Needell

He showed up like clockwork. BodyCombat on Sunday mornings, sweat darkening the back of his shirt before most people had even made coffee. Sometimes he’d stay until the afternoon BodyPump class. On Thursdays, he was there before dawn for Grit — thirty minutes of high-intensity interval training where the music hits hard, the lights stay low, and no one has breath to spare. Not that he did much talking anyway. He was always in the back row, and he never lingered after class to chat.

Laury Dennis had noticed him the way workout instructors do. Noticed the effort, the consistency, the way he rarely made eye contact on the way out. She said hello. She nodded in his direction. But like most people in a crowded workout class, he remained mostly unknown.

Until the email.

“I knew him, but I didn’t know him,” she said. “He was the shy guy in the back that never talked to anybody.”

His name was Derek Christian. And what no one knew – not his instructors, nor the people who lifted and kicked and pushed through the workouts alongside him – was that during those years, he and his wife were fighting to keep their daughter alive.

A girl sits in a living room, holding a binder of collectible cards, while she talks to someone out of frame. An IV bag and tube are next to her, with a bandage on her face and a tower wrapped around her shoulders.

At home, but still in treatment. Juno continued receiving care around the clock — including nearly 100 units of donated blood.

In 2020, their 8-year-old daughter, Juno, was diagnosed with an especially rare and aggressive form of leukemia. Treatment meant full-time hospitalization. COVID meant only one parent allowed at a time. No visitors; just the fluorescent corridors of the pediatric cancer floor for two years.

When he wasn’t at the hospital, he came to the gym. It was one of the only places he could go (masked and social-distanced) to quiet the storm in his head. For an hour at a time, he could trade helplessness for effort, grief for movement, fear for repetition.

After two years of intense treatment, Juno finally came home. Throughout her time in the hospital, she had received close to a hundred units of blood. Derek had never told anyone at the gym, but when the whirlwind of hospital life slowed and a sense of normalcy trickled in, he sent a heartfelt email to the Raintree Athletic Club in Fort Collins, CO.

“Going to the gym has become my stress release, therapy, and honestly a break from my life I love but that can be very busy,” Derek wrote in the email. “We are a blended family and between us, we have six bio kids, one adopted kid, and a foster son. It is honestly very hard to re-enter life after something like this. I just wanted to say thank you. You were a great help and I never told anyone that.”

He asked if Raintree would consider hosting a blood drive with the American Red Cross, a way to pay it forward. It would be the first blood drive in the gym’s history.

“It was a no-brainer,” Laury said. “We’re a community. For a lot of people, this is their home away from home. I remember going, ‘Gosh, why haven’t we done this before?’”

The basketball court was cleared. Juno’s picture was printed and posted. Sign-ups filled with names. By the end of the day, 70 units of blood were collected.

A smiling young girl stands in a garden, holding a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

Now in middle school, Juno is cancer free and thriving.

“Derek couldn’t come to the first blood drive because he was in isolation,” Laury said. “The second one, he was able to come … and he was just blown away by the attendance, by the spirit of giving back.”

After that, Derek wasn’t just the quiet guy in the back of class anymore. He began saying hello. He let people in, little by little. And the people who work at the gym found their lives were changed forever, too.

“It means everything to be part of something that saves lives,” Laury said. “That’s why I work here. I’m proud of where I work. I’m proud of my boss, the owner, my manager. We love our purpose and we live our values every single day.”

The family’s story has continued in uncertain chapters. For a time, Juno tested positive for leukemia again. Her family braced for a bone marrow transplant, but as of now, she’s back in middle school. She has scars from all the medical procedures, but she proudly wears shorts and skirts.

Derek shared a story of someone in class teasing her for not knowing how to tie her shoes. Well, she’d spent nearly three years barefoot in a hospital. According to her teacher, Juno just looked at the kid and said, “I was busy fighting cancer. It didn’t seem important.” The teasing stopped.

“She’s so strong,” Laury said. “That’s what we all want for our kids.”

The Raintree Athletic Club now hosts multiple blood drives each year with the Red Cross. Members still show up to BodyCombat and Grit, still line up for smoothies and coffee after. But now, giving blood is part of the culture, too.

If this story inspired you, make an appointment to give blood at redcrossblood.org.