SPOKANE, Wash. — Two boys separated by a state line and nearly 200 miles are battling cancer together, proving the healing power of friendship.
We all have that one friend who gets us through the hard stuff.
Rylan is from Hayden, Idaho. Isaac lives in Tri-Cities, Washington. The pair probably never would have met under normal circumstances.
Until both boys were diagnosed with leukemia.
When their families started making the journey to Providence Sacred Heart in Spokane for treatment, neither could have imagined where their unlikely friendship would take them.
“He was 10 and Isaac was 9, so it wasn’t like they were having conversations about the cancer and all that stuff, it was just being able to have just two like buddies that go play video games, with their poles in hand, and it was just normal,” Megan Nitti, Rylan’s mom said.
They met in a hospital school program funded by donors, as a place for pediatric cancer patients to step away from treatment and find some normalcy. But it wasn’t homework that started their friendship.
“No, it’s video games,” Nitti laughed as she remembered their first meeting.
The boys became hospital explorers, racing wheelchairs down hallways, sharing dinners at the Ronald McDonald House, and diving into epic video game battles that transported them far from their IV poles.
“Both in wheelchairs at one point, just up and down the hallway, we had dinner together most nights and played card games,” said Nitti.
Isaac’s dad, Joshua Brittain still gets emotional talking about one of the worst periods.
“Boy he was really bad one part, he had an SOS, it was like his liver pretty much shutting down, and yeah he was hospitalized for three weeks straight,” he said.
For families walking this path, the lows can feel impossibly isolating.
That’s when these two buddies leaned on each other the most.
“And it’s just easier to talk to him because he’ll be like hey, what are you, Oh I had to get an LP, and it’s okay instead of like, oh what’s that,” Rylan explained.
“We like playing video games with each other, and he has cancer like me,” Isaac said.
Last spring, the boys planned an adventure beyond the hospital. They were heading to Camp Journey Northwest in Post Falls.
“It is literally this magical, special place where these kids get to forget about just what they’re going through and they just get to be kids and have fun,” Nitti said.
The summer camp is organized by oncology staff and volunteers to allow cancer survivors one week away from the hospital to swim in the river, rock climb, dance, paint, and just be kids.
“There are tons of other kids that have walked through these same hallways and these same chemo’s and the same procedures, they can see other kids are doing great and moving on with their life,” said Dr. Ross Goshorn, pediatric oncologist at Providence Sacred Heart.
Hospital stays are shorter now, as both boys have returned home.
Isaac is approaching a huge milestone. He’s set to finish treatment at Sacred Heart in December. Rylan will follow just a few months later.
“Yep, don’t know what God’s got in store for him, something powerful,” said Brittain.
The miles between Hayden and Tri-Cities? They don’t matter anymore. These boys have something that distance can’t touch.
“There’s just something about that friendship that’s just, it’s just different. And definitely nothing that we take for granted because this journey would be a whole lot harder without them,” Nitti said.
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