LI's Criss Angel: Son's cancer is in remission

Illusionist Criss Angel, who was born in Hempstead and raised in Elmont and East Meadow, and his wife Shaunyl Benson each announced Monday that their eldest child, who has battled cancer for most of his nearly 8 years, is in remission.

"Today our son Johnny Crisstopher will finally ring the bell symbolizing his remission and the end of his treatment!" wrote Angel, 54, and Benson, 30, in all capital letters on their respective Instagram accounts, referring to the ceremonial bell that cancer patients often ring to commemorate the end of chemotherapy or radiation treatment.

A day earlier, Benson had written on Instagram, "Tomorrow is the big day. Johnny Crisstopher will FINALLY ring the bell after 6 long years. What a journey it has been, this nightmare we have lived twice since 2015," following the child's prior remission and relapse. "We have an amazing support system and I'm so so grateful for my parents and their selflessness. Family is everything, especially during the hard times," she wrote, adding, "We are so proud of you my Johnny boy. … I'm so excited for your future."

Accompanying Monday's post was a 13¾-minute film about pediatric cancer. The title, "1095," reflects what it calls the number of days of chemotherapy that male children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, with which their son was diagnosed, must undergo.

"No network or streaming platform will air the short film we made documenting his journey … because of the subject matter … but this is real life!" the post said. "I'm asking from my heart to yours if you would kindly REPOST or SHARE … this short film on your social media platforms … so that we can raise awareness and money to help kids battling for their lives right now."

In the film, Dr. Alan Ikeda, chief medical officer of the Las Vegas-based Cure 4 the Kids Foundation, says, "The public needs to be made aware" of the 15,000 children a year in the United States diagnosed with cancer. "By getting together and making a movement, we can do better science, we can have better technologies, we can get more donations to have better clinical trials and more research for these patients."

The film ends with the logo of the Johnny Crisstopher Children's Charitable Foundation and a URL for donations, CrissAngelHELP.com.

Angel, born Christopher Sarantakos, and Benson are also the parents of son Xristos, who turns 3 on Saturday, and daughter Illusia, born prematurely on Nov. 5.