Me and My Best Friend

For those of you who do not know, my name is Dylan Patel and cancer has impacted my life more than once, although I never had cancer I have witnessed how hard the battle is for my loved ones. This is my story on how we first met.  My experience with cancer started when I was in elementary school. I found out that my best friend had a brain tumor. At the time I had no idea what a brain tumor was and thought that it was pretty cool.  I did not realize how bad cancer was until my best friend had his first radiation session.  Once my friend finished his radiation I thought that it was the end of cancer for him.  I could not have been more wrong. 

Everyday in summer I would go to his house and swim in his pool, but then there was one day when he was rushed to the hospital for an emergency MRI.  I was really confused as to what was going on because I thought the cancer was gone.  I found out that the cancer was back the next day and was devastated.  The cancer got so bad that my friend had to go through multiple surgeries to try and get rid of the tumor as much as possible.  There is one moment of my friend’s battle that I will never forget.  I went to visit my friend in the hospital after his surgery and I was shocked to see that his head was all wrapped in a bandage.  A couple days later my friend was able to leave the hospital and come back home. 

The next day I went to go to my friend’s house to swim and hang out, but I was told that I have to take things slow with him because the recovery process is long and hard.  I would still go to his house every day and we would sit in his basement and play video games for multiple hours and drink all the sodas that were in his fridge.  It was these days that made me realize that I would do anything for my friend. 

As time went on he started to get better and better.  As we spent everyday together I realized that nothing was coming between our friendship.  We would spend so much time together that we would go to each other’s family gatherings. Everything was perfect and my friend was doing amazing until COVID hit.  I was not able to go to my friends house anymore and it was hard not being able to see each other.  We would still play video games together but it didn’t feel the same.  Then there was this one period where my friend would not play video games because it was too draining for him.  This is when I found out that the tumor was back.  My friend had another surgery and this time the doctors said they could get rid of the tumor permanently.  A couple weeks after the surgery I facetimed my friend before he went to take the most important MRI of his life.  The results came back and I was the first person he called to tell.  I was so relieved to hear that the tumor was gone and there was no sign of it left in his brain.  It was at that moment that I realized that my friend beat cancer. Through this journey he showed us what being resilient truly means and taught me that I could achieve anything I put my mind to. He makes me stronger.

I’m sharing my stories of inspiration when it comes to cancer. Please join me in creating stories of hope by sponsoring me for YOU Make Me Stronger “Stories of Hope” launching October 1st.