VIDEO: The emotional story of a 9-year-old dying with cancer. You will not believe what his dad told him

Cancer is definitely one of the most serious diseases and toughest obstacles that a person needs to endure, especially if it is not discovered on time and the disease is in an advanced stage, thus reducing the chances of healing and survival. The whole experience gets even worse when a child is suffering from cancer, a person that would normally have all his life to dream ahead and hope about the future experiences that he will love.

The grueling experience of having a child that battles cancer was lived by Bill Kohler, a former Army medic. Bill’s son, Ayden, was a happy and cheerful nine-year-old until he got the unfortunate news that he is going to die rather soon, as a result of DIPG – diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a type of extremely aggressive cancer. This type of rare cancer affects the brain stem and patients that are diagnosed with it unfortunately do not live for more than a year after the diagnosis.

Ayden’s case was even worse than the usual ones, as he was having not one, but two brain tumors. Moreover, he was perfectly aware of the fact of his condition and the fact that he was dying. His father had seen a lot of people dying in the army, but he found himself unable to cope with his son’s imminent death. He simply did not know what to say to him and how to deal with the whole situation.

All that he could try and do was fight, so he started applying to various clinical trials, in the hope of getting Ayden into one so that he could take advantage of a potentially revolutionary treatment. Nevertheless, he got rejection after rejection. “I was a medic in the war, you know, and you fix things. And this was something I couldn’t even touch,” Bill declared.

Once he saw that there was no way to get Ayden cured, Bill started focusing on enriching his son’s remaining days as much as possible. “We looked at the day, and we looked at how we could make that day the best we could. Every day,” Ayden’s mother declared. Ayden’s parents thus helped their son meet WWE wrestling stars, chat with celebrity chef Guy Fieri over FaceTime, hunt in the woods and join the team members of the York Generals semi-professional football team for a fundraiser.

Their time soon came to an end, though. At some point, Ayden became unable to walk, eat or even breathe properly. He eventually told his father some words that he never hoped to hear. “Dad, I gotta quit,” Ayden said to his heartbroken father.

“I’ll make you a promise. If you’ve fought as much as you can and as hard as you can and you feel you fought that hard, I promise you it’s OK to quit,” was Bill’s tearful response.

Seven months and seven days after being diagnosed, Ayden eventually succumbed to his illness. Before he died, he had one final request. “If people gather to remember me, I want them to dance, sing, and take group pictures,” he said. “If anyone asks how I want to be remembered, please say happy, funny, athletic, wise, fighter, caring, and selfless,” he said.

This is truly an inspiring story, that serves as an example for all of us.