DeVonta Smith’s fiancée Mya Danielle delivers a surprise gift to an Eagles fan battling cancer
Mya Danielle surprised 66-year-old Pat Schmus at the hospital with a signed jersey from DeVonta Smith.
As fans cheer for their teams each passing week, they eventually develop a favorite player — whether it’s Saquon Barkley for his highlight reel moves, Jalen Hurts for his iconic quotes, or Brandon Graham for his elite trash talking.
But for 66-year-old Mullica Hill native Pat Schmus, her favorite player is DeVonta Smith. That’s why Monday was so special.
During the Spring of 2022, Pat was diagnosed with Stage 4 ovarian cancer. Since her diagnosis, she’s been battling recurrence after recurrence. She was eventually put into remission after going through aggressive chemotherapy until Spring 2023. But, in January of 2024, the cancer came back.
“Since then, we’ve just been treating it with more aggressive chemotherapy to try to get back to that place,” her daughter Theresa told The Inquirer.
On Monday at Penn Medicine, Pat had one of her longer chemotherapy days, starting at 6:45 a.m. and ending at 7:30 p.m. During the challenging day, Theresa, 23, wanted to find a way to cheer her mom up as she doom scrolled through Facebook reels, showing Theresa photos of Smitty’s game day outfits.
In a video that has now gone viral on TikTok with over one million views, she revealed that Pat was surprised with a signed Smith jersey and “a thoughtful card” from someone close to the wide receiver: Smith’s fiancée Mya Danielle. And this all started with a simple DM to Danielle on Instagram.
Her roommate Aidan Hopkins was the one who pitched the idea.
“My roommate was like ‘Why don’t you just message his fiancée? She’s super kind. She’s online all the time.’”
So she did. Theresa messaged Danielle to see if there was a chance she could send her a jersey to get signed for her mom. After she sent the message she patiently waited — for 20 minutes. Danielle responded almost immediately, asking what building they would be in, what her mom’s name was, and what size shirt she was.
To make the moment more special, Danielle showed up to the hospital herself to deliver the gifts.
”I was just floored," Theresa said. “She texted me and I ran downstairs. I had a brief interaction with her and she was so kind. She handed me the gift. I was like shaking, sobbing going up the elevator. I went upstairs and gave it to my mom and then that’s when I took the video.”
In the video, an emotional Theresa surprised Pat with the gifts while she was laying down in her hospital bed. After asking Theresa if this was a joke, she immediately responded “How do I thank them?” And as she posed with her jersey lying on top of her in the hospital bed, she jokingly told her daughter “You can’t borrow this.”
Danielle responded to the post, commenting “keep fighting Ms. Patty.”
Although this is Pat’s first Eagles jersey, she always showed off her Philly sports fandom in other ways — from her Flyers mailbox to screaming inside her house after an Eagles touchdown. Now, she has plans to wear her new jersey for the upcoming season.
“She’s very excited,” Theresa said. “We decided as a family, she’s going to wear it this season, but we’re going to frame it afterwards. She’s just so thankful because it was such a tough day for her so she was in shock. It just shows how great this city really is and how great the sports culture is. You don’t see this happening anywhere other than Philadelphia.”