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Jennifer Patchin learned in February that her 9-year-old son’s brain cancer had come back.
This time, Drew’s brain tumor was inoperable. His oncologist told the family they probably had about nine months left with him, Patchin recalled. The family decided they would spend the time making memories and doing “whatever Drew wanted.”
And Drew, who is now 10, wanted to feel famous. He’d been featured in local news a few times during his battle with brain cancer, and he’d loved the rush of being recognized like a celebrity in his hometown of St. Louis, Patchin said.
So late last month, the family wanted to see whether he could feel famous during their trip to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Hours before Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party — where Drew wanted to see his all-time favorite character, Dopey, one of the Snow White dwarves — Patchin’s sister posted online to see whether she could get a handful of attendees to pretend they recognized Drew. But with help from a TikTok creator, the request went viral. Everywhere Drew went during the Sept. 29 party, visitors and Disney employees shouted his name, asked for autographs and posed for photos.
“That was all such magic that I couldn’t buy for my kids,” said Patchin, 43.
Drew has had brain cancer since 2019, when he was diagnosed with his first ependymoma, a type of tumor, at age 6.
Though he had surgery to remove the tumor and underwent about 30 rounds of radiation that year, it was all “no big deal” to him, Patchin said. He was so young at the time that he’d quickly forgotten the weeks he’d been in the hospital and the treatments he’d undergone, she said.
Drew, who’d always loved characters and mascots, watched “SpongeBob SquarePants” and “Paw Patrol” during radiation. After treatment, he lived his life as normally as possible, taking trips with his family to Disney theme parks and sporting events to see his favorite characters and mascots.
And aside from the one time he noticed that the cast member for Pluto, Mickey Mouse’s dog, had a plastic tongue, Drew still “believed in the magic” of the characters, Patchin said.
“Until he’s proven otherwise, he’s believed that,” she said. “And I love that about him.”
The Patchin family considered themselves lucky for years. When Drew’s cancer came back in 2021, the tumor was removed again. He’d survived brain cancer twice, and the family was hopeful he would not have to face it again.
“We knew if it came back, our options are very limited,” Patchin said.
This past spring, when the family learned that the cancer had returned for a third time and was largely inoperable, their approach was “very, very different,” Patchin said. She — alongside her husband, Doug; their 5-year-old son, Tyler; and her sister, Debbie Schultz — made a list of all the things they wanted to do with Drew over the next nine months.
At the same time, Patchin was contacting doctors across the country, hoping to find one who could try to help her son.
In July, Drew had some of his tumor removed and began chemotherapy as part of a six-week clinical trial the Patchin family thought might help him get rid of the third tumor. But a Sept. 8 MRI exam showed that it had only grown, Patchin said.
The family scheduled another scan for November and decided they would still go to Orlando for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party while Drew was feeling up for it. Hoping to make the party extra special for Drew and his brother, Patchin’s sister made a post in a Facebook group for the event.
“If you are going tonight and happen to see them and want to create pixie dust, just ‘recognizing’ them as celebrities excites them!” Schultz wrote in a request hours before the event was set to begin.
Her plea made its way to Kristen Sotakoun, a 33-year-old self-described “Disney adult” and content creator, who was in Orlando with her husband that same weekend.
Sotakoun, who worked as a Disney cast member more than 10 years ago, planned to attend the Halloween party and had been checking the Facebook group that afternoon when she saw Schultz’s post.
“I was like, this takes zero effort to make these boys’ day,” Sotakoun said.
She knew that if she saw Drew and Tyler, she would say hello. But she wanted to take it one step further by sharing Schultz’s request to her more than 1 million followers on TikTok.
“I feel like I’d be doing a disservice to myself if I didn’t use my platform for this kind of thing, for something good,” Sotakoun said.
She messaged Schultz for permission to make the video and to include photos of the Patchin family so people could recognize them. Sotakoun knew there were only about three hours to go until the party but hoped her video would reach at least five or 10 people who would be willing to help.
But the video’s views skyrocketed. Users started showering the video with comments to express support and expand its online reach.
With about one hour left until the party, Sotakoun started receiving messages from cast members working the event saying they’d shared the request in group chats with other Disney colleagues.
Realizing Drew and Tyler’s wish would come true, Sotakoun said, was a sign that “magic is so real.”
“It was amazing to see a lot of people come together for these two boys in such a simple way,” she said.
From the moment Drew and Tyler, dressed as Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger, entered Magic Kingdom, dozens of partygoers yelled their names, exclaiming in high-pitched voices how excited they were to see the duo, Patchin said. Disney cast members stationed throughout the park did the same, taking selfies and asking for autographs.
During the parade at the end of the night, Drew’s favorite character, Dopey, skipped over and hugged him across the rope barrier before blowing him a kiss, video from Patchin shows. She sent videos and photos from the party to Sotakoun so she could share updates with TikTok users who had asked about Drew’s day.
Since the party, Sotakoun’s TikToks have been viewed more than 8 million times — a figure Patchin and her family are still trying to grasp. They’d wanted Drew and Tyler to feel famous but never expected millions of people across the world to care about the siblings and their story.
It’s a memory Patchin will keep close in the coming months as the family weighs their course of action after the next MRI — that with the help of Sotakoun and other strangers online, they’d been able to grant Drew’s wish.
On Wednesday morning, Patchin asked Drew what his favorite part of the day was.
“All of it,” he said.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/10/06/boy-cancer-disney-tiktok-celebrity/