A terminally ill Missouri teenager’s last wish to see “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” was granted before he died.
Jaylon Hamilton, 19, was always shy, according to his sister, Jatavia Davis. The siblings lost both of their parents at a young age, and Davis had to step in and take care of her little brother.
“Once he gets the feel of a person, or he gets to know you, he’ll open up like a book,” Davis told KSDK News.
Doctors found a large tumor, and Hamilton was diagnosed with a rare form of nerve cell cancer in January 2021. It was so severe that chemotherapy and radiation could not help him, KSDK reports.
“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,” Washington University oncologist Dr. Angela Hirbe said.
Hirbe said Hamilton didn’t talk much at their appointments, but when he did speak, he would rave about his love for superhero movies. He was keen on seeing the new Marvel “Black Panther” sequel. So the doctor took to Facebook for help on Nov. 8.
By that time, Hamilton was in hospice care.
“I’m trying to find a way to borrow a copy of the new Black Panther movie that we can show him in the hospital,” Hirbe wrote.
The post was shared 153 times. Somehow word got back to Marvel, and a staffer flew to St. Louis with a copy of the movie.
The December 5th Fund, a nonprofit offering support to cancer patients’ families, provided Hamilton with smoothies he could enjoy, two gift baskets of other treats and Black Panther memorabilia.
“A lot of my patients have big families and lots of family and friends. They always have people around taking care of him,” the doctor said. “I just 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.”
Marvel Studios’ Black Panther premiered in 2018, instantly smashing blockbuster records. Movie fans went to see the film in droves, as it was one of the few movies that featured a Black superhero as the lead character. It was the highest-grossing solo superhero film and the ninth-highest film of all time, raking in nearly $682 million. Its plot is centered on T’Challa, the king of a fictitious African nation, Wakanda.
T’Challa defeats his enemies and overcomes several obstacles in the film. However, the actor who played the character, Chadwick Boseman, on the big screen was secretly fighting his own battle with colon cancer in real life. Boseman died in August 2020 before Marvel started the second installment of the series.
Hamilton also lost his battle with cancer on Nov. 18, shortly after watching “Wakanda Forever.” His funeral service was held on Dec. 1.
“I’m just grateful that, that this could happen for him,” Hirbe said.
