Comics, cosplay and cancer

Photo by Daryl Fabionan

There’s easiness when you have a sense of control over circumstances. Break up with a toxic friend who pulls you down. Quit the job you do not like. Change the channel when you do not like what you see. 

But when you face death in the eye, choices are all about what treatment works or not. Some are lucky to still have choices. Others, particularly at the cancer ward of the National Children’s Hospital we recently visited, were given a few months to live. If there are still choices or none, they do not have the luxury of time to know about it.

A year ago, when I shared my first comic book drive for the kids of National Children’s Hospital online, someone asked if I was really doing it for the children or I just want to feel better about myself. I do feel better when I gather comics for the kids. I do feel happier when I try to put a smile on their faces and their parents. The studies that say charity works can cause happiness are true. After two years of dressing up in somewhat silly costumes and handing comics to them made me realize that it is beneficial to both the recipient of the gifts and the giver.

I am thankful to everyone who contributed to my birthday project. I am thankful to the artists, comic book donors, food, transportation and art materials (Titus Pens) sponsors and cosplayers for giving me that sense of control. If we can’t still find a cure, we’ll give them instead a positive emotional boost to fight the Big C through the things we geeks find joy.

Captain America cosplayer Jan-Charles Carmona

Daryl Fabionan (Lupin), Sub-Zero (Martin Jimenez), Christian Lim (War Machine), Willord Ordona (Super Mario), Jan-Charles Carmona (Captain America) and my friends Marvin Banas, Jayzel Oringo, Jacqueline Ong and Dani Macasaet.

Yeah, I was Finn from Adventure Time. :-P