Smart and outgoing, 6-year-old Bentley Thatcher was happiest when he was outside exploring, off-roading, swimming, going to the gravel pit, and riding his four-wheeler. The little Lego master loved playing Super Mario and relaxing in his papa’s hot tub. Bentley put his family’s happiness and well-being ahead of his own. He was inspiring and lived for smiles, laughter, and love.
It was the summer of 2018 when Bentley’s parents, Ashley and Allen, noticed a tremor in his left hand while their son was playing T-ball. Soon after, an MRI revealed that Bentley had a tumor the size of a softball growing in his brain. Four days later, a biopsy confirmed the worst. Bentley had terminal brain cancer.
Four months after a seemingly successful surgery that fall to remove the tumor, the Thatcher family received the devastating news that their son’s cancer had come back. They enrolled him in a clinical trial at C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital that utilized ONC201, a newer drug that had caused tumor shrinkage in some brain cancer patients.
Bentley bravely fought his battle with brain cancer for 471 days. His family misses him dearly and continues to raise awareness, with the hope that one day there will be a cure for the disease that so cruelly took their child.
