Before sadly succumbing to cancer, 19-year-old Jaylon Hamilton’s last wish was to see the new Black Panther movie. Thankfully, the terminally ill patient’s wish was granted before he peacefully died on November 18.
According to KSDK, Hamilton’s parents died when he was very young, so his sister had to step in to help with his upbringing. She described her deceased brother as someone who did not like being in the limelight though he noticed everything.
“Once he gets the feel of a person or he gets to know you, he’ll open up like a book,” his sister, Jatavia Davis said. Hamilton, in January last year, was diagnosed with a type of nerve cancer that was said to be very rare. Dr. Angela Hirbe, who is an Oncologist at Washington University, told the news outlet that Hamilton “had a very large tumor by the time he was diagnosed and a very painful tumor.”
Doctors also made the decision to not put the teen on chemotherapy and radiation after he underwent multiple tests. “Everything that we were doing for him was trying to prolong his life for as long as we could and to try to maintain as good of a quality of life as we could,” Hirbe said.
And though Hamilton was usually silent during his appointments with Hirbe, the Oncologist said that anytime he spoke, he expressed his love for superhero movies. “He likes stuff like that,” Jatavia said.
Hamilton also keenly expressed his desire to see the Black Panther sequel. So in an attempt to grant him that wish, Hirbe took to Facebook to try and get the attention of officials at Marvel Studios.
It paid off, and Hamilton got to watch Black Panther: Wakanda Forever after a Marvel representative traveled to St. Louis with a copy of the movie, KSDK reported. The icing on the cake was that he also got to watch the box office hit while having his favorite smoothies.
“I’m not the biggest fan of social media, but this was one instance when I feel like something good came from social media,” Hirbe said. She also added that she and her team wanted to make every day worthwhile for Hamilton.
“A lot of my patients have big families and lots of family and friends. They always have people around taking care of him,” said Hirbe. “I just, I think that he and his sister had to work really hard in life. They have each other, but I wanted him to feel like he had a village behind him.”
Hamilton peacefully died not too long after his wish was granted. A GoFundMe has since been set up to help raise funds for his funeral expenses.
“I’m just grateful that, that this could happen for him,” Hirbe said.
