Southfield

S-L junior hopes for a world with less cancer

By Jennie Miller
C & G Staff Writer

“I’m all right now,” Brandon Wilks, 16, said of the rocky road he’s been on since well before he can remember.

The Southfield-Lathrup High school junior has survived cancer of the eye. He’s had his ups and downs along the way, but he’s happy to be alive, and says he’s in a good place now.

When he was an infant, doctors discovered that what was thought to be a lazy eye was actually a life-threatening disease. Already blind and threatening to cause further damage, his eye was removed.

“I was devastated,” his mother, Beverly Wilks, said, adding that the process was confusing, and she felt somehow cheated — that perhaps if they’d found out sooner what was going on, her son could have kept his eye.

But the doctors told her that even if they’d caught it earlier, the eye would still have been lost.

Retinoblastoma is a very rare form of cancer and typically affects children under the age of 6, usually detected between 1 and 2 years of age. Wilks was outfitted with a prosthetic eye, and he’s carried on in life ever since, making adjustments accordingly.

“He’s doing really good. He’s come a long way,” Beverly Wilks said.

But it wasn’t always easy. He had his challenges mentally. In middle school, he went through depression.

“I used to wonder what it was like to be able to see with both eyes,” he said. “I just felt out of place. I used to worry about what other people thought of me, and that brought me down. I just stopped doing my work and doing everything in school. But I’m doing a lot better. My whole mindset has changed. I really don’t even think about it anymore. I don’t even care about it now. I realized people don’t even pay attention to it anyway.”

Wilks is now an honor student, a member of Scholars Plus and the National Honor Society. He plans to run track this year, and play football next year. And he’s joined forces with the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life, an annual event aimed at increasing awareness and raising funds to fight cancer of all forms.

Teams of family, friends and coworkers camp out overnight, taking turns walking from sunup to sundown and sunup again, celebrating the victory of local cancer survivors and remembering those who have lost their battle with the disease.

Wilks will speak at the Relay for Life’s kickoff event, scheduled for 7-8 p.m. Thursday, March 1, at the American Cancer Society’s southeast Michigan office, located at 20450 Civic Center Drive. Registration and refreshments will be served from 6:30-7 p.m.

The 2012 Relay for Life of Southfield is set for 10 a.m. May 19 to 10 a.m. May 20 at the Southfield High School track. For more information, to register or to make a donation, visit www.relayforlife.org/southfieldmi.

For more information about the American Cancer Society, call (800) 227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.

You can reach C & G Staff Writer Jennie Miller at jmiller@candgnews.com or at (586)279-1108.