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Unlikely Best Friends Battle Cancer As Family Fights For More Research Funding

Bryant Cooper, age 18 years, and Kena Spivey, age 19 months, might seem like the most unlikely of best friends.  Their friendship, their bond, is held together by the thing they’d most like to beat — childhood cancer.

In late October of last year, Bryant was a happy, focused young man with a love for football. And John Deere…that love was strong enough that he had even landed a dream job of sorts with a local John Deere dealership. But pain in his back — he thought just a pulled muscle or maybe kidney stones — sent him to the emergency room.  The preliminary diagnosis was not good…suspicious spots on his liver. More tests for a final diagnosis that Bryant and his mother, Janet Little Cooper, never expected on November 4.

Cancer.

Not just cancer, but a Stage 4 rare neuroendocrine cancer, and it had spread with a vengeance to other parts of this body.

“It’s very rare and incurable. Because it had spread, there was nothing that they could do other than chemo. We were basically told six months for him to live without chemo, maybe a couple of years with chemo.”

Kena was diagnosed with a Stage 3 tumor on her cervix and uterus on July 7, 2014.

Kena was in Sacred Heart Hospital for a chemo treatment, and Bryant was in for his first ever treatment when the two met on November 17. Her parents, Charles and Dawn Spivey, were walking her down the hallway trying to calm her when they met Janet.

“Dawn, seeing the fear in my face, was so kind and began telling me the details of what to expect when Bryant’s chemo started,” Janet said.  “Her compassion is what I needed that night.”

Kena’s tears stopped when she saw Bryant lying in his hospital bed.

“As the  tears stopped, she reached her little hand out to Bryant and started baby talk grunting like she wanted him. At that moment, a bond was made….”

The friendships have grown outside the hospital…daily texts, activities together and phone calls. Bryant has become a voice of sorts for Kena, able to relate how a medicine tastes or feels to her mom.

During those long hours at her son’s bedside, anger began to grow inside Janet. Not just the anger one might expect toward cancer, but an anger of what’s being done to cure childhood cancer.

On average, 43 teens are diagnosed with cancer each day. And before the day ends, a childhood cancer will claim seven lives.

“There are billions and billions of dollars spent on cancer research every year in this country. But only four percent is spent on find a cure for childhood cancers,” she said.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, and this Saturday a special event will be held at Maritime Park with a shave-a-thon benefiting St. Baldrick’s Foundation, a charity committed to funding the most promising research to find cures for childhood cancers. Participants can shave their heads, or just donate, to help the cause.  For more information, visit the St. Baldrick’s website. Kena and Bryant have their own team in the event, Standing with Coop & Baby Kena, click here to donate specifically to their team. The funds all go to national childhood cancer research, not to Kena and Bryant.

Janet has also joined the movement to have the NFL go gold for childhood cancer….much as they go pink for breast cancer. For more information, see NFLgoGOLD.com.

“I know this is all too late for my son, but we can keep other families and other children from going through this by working to increase childhood cancer research funding,” she said.

As for Kena…her cancer has spread to her lungs, and the family hopes that someone reading this has experience with a doctor somewhere in the country that might be able to help. And she’s learned to call her best buddy Bryant by name.

Bryant will continue chemo as long as he can tolerate it. And beyond that, according to his doctors, there is little hope. He’s not oblivious to that fact.

“Mama before I die I want to…”, is how many of the conversations between Bryant and his mom go.  But still, Bryant has a different outlook.

“Those doctors don’t have the authority to number my days. Only God does,” he said.

Follow Bryant’s progress on Facebook at “Standing with Coop“.

Pictured: “Best friends” Bryant and Kena are battling cancer. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.