Luck, family team up for cancer research
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (WISH) – “In the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.”
That quote is framed and sits in Ben and Amber Villars’ Noblesville home, a true testament to the life their four-year-old son Wayland lived.
He was diagnosed with DIPG, a rare form of brain cancer at just three and a half years old.
It’s the same cancer college basketball Lauren Hill battled, as well.
Ben and Amber say they started noticing Wayland was drooling more, and was a bit more clumsy than usual in early 2012. When he started to have severe head pains they brought him into the doctor. An MRI eventually turned up a large mass on Wayland’s brain stem: DIPG.
They were told there was nothing they could do. Wayland was given twelve months to live.
“It was devastating,” said Amber Villars. “We thought, OK, we’re going to fight this, we’re going to figure this out. But we were sent home the very same day. It felt like we were swimming out in the middle of the ocean, and had nowhere to go, not knowing what to do.”
The Villars say children with DIPG can receive radiation, which doctors say extends their lives.
Wayland started on radiation and his tumor started to shrink.
Wayland bravely wore what the family dubbed, his ‘brave suit,’ to find some courage through the radiation treatments. It was a “Blue Angels’ jumpsuit given to him by Amber’s sister.
Meanwhile, the Villars took it upon themselves to research and find out what else they could do.
They found an immunotherapy treatment in California, that wouldn’t have any harmful side effects for Wayland, and traveled there every month.
It was March of the following year, they say Wayland’s tumor started growing again. He passed away in August of 2013.
“What really motivates us is what we heard when Wayland was diagnosed: there’s no hope. What we want to change is that, there’s something really good now. There’s hope. We have good research going, good medicines, and that’s what motivates us. That’s what we want parents to hear,” said Amber.
“There’s only 200 kids a year in the United States that are diagnosed with DIPG,” explained Ben.
“We feel very passionate to help other people, to give them, when you start out, so you don’t feel so lost. We felt lost when we first started out, and had to do a lot of our own research,” he added.
The Villars and Wayland’s little sister, Amelia, started a non-profit in his honor, now called the Wayland Villars DIPG Foundation. The money goes toward research for DIPG, specifically, research happening at Stanford.
On Sunday, they’re hosting a fundraising event that Colts Quarterback Andrew Luck will attend and participate in. Indiana Pace Mates and Boomer will also attend.
It’s called “Play Like a Warrior,” and includes a football and dance/cheer clinics, silent auction, arcade, a chance to give blood, catch a pass from Andrew Luck and meet DIPG researchers as well.
The event will take place from 8 a.m. – 4:30 PM at the Incrediplex in Indianapolis. That’s located at 6002 Sunnyside Road, Indianapolis, IN 46236.
All money raised will go to the Wayland Villars DIPG Foundation to help fund research at Stanford University, and to support DIPG patients at Riley Hospital for Children.
For information on the “Play Like a Warrior” event and the Villars, click here, or email them at info@waylandswarriors.com.
For more information on DIPG, click here.Some video in this story is courtesy: Emily Probst; Ben and Amber Villars