Aggies give football collectables to local boy
“Live Your Dreams”, says the bumper sticker on the back of Derrian Comer’s wheelchair. The 9-year-old chose the sticker because, although he is terminally ill, he is determined to enjoy life while he can, his mother Adrienne Comer said.
Derrian was diagnosed with Gliolblastoma Multiforme on Sept. 15, 2001, and since that time has undergone radiation and chemotherapy, neither of which was effective against his cancer.
Derrian is one of the few children to have this kind of brain tumor, which usually grows only in adults.
“But his attitude is ‘I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow, but I’m going to play today’,” Adrienne said.
The Utah State University football team aided Derrian in his playing when they signed a football and hats for him and his younger brother Drake. Jesse Busta, Roger Fernandez, Jose Fuentes and Mike Shepper presented the souvenirs to the Comers at Lotsa Pizza Pie in Logan on Jan. 19.
“It was like getting a new favorite toy,” Derrian said.
Derrian doesn’t play with the football but uses it as a collector’s item, he said.
Fernandez said meeting Derrian was an amazing opportunity which he was glad to take.
“It was great to visit with him and his family and just give words of encouragement,” he said. “It put things into perspective for me.”
Danny Royer, a local pastor; and football player Tyler Olsen, who lives near the Comers in Young Ward, both came up with the idea of having the team do something for Derrian.
Royer has worked with the football players in the capacity of a minister and pastor and first met the Comers when he read about Derrian in The Herald Journal. He too has a son with cancer who received a football jersey from the team two years ago.
“When my little boy Thomas was very sick with leukemia and in chemotherapy, the football players presented him with a jersey, and it meant a lot to him,” Royer said. “I thought it would be good to do something like that for Derrian.”
And it was good for Derrian, Adrienne said.
“It’s been hard for him,” she said. “But the football helps him so he doesn’t get down. It was wonderful; he’s been showing everyone his hat and football.”
The presentation of the gifts was delayed for several weeks because of medical complications and Derrian having to stay in Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City.
“Originally, they were going to come out to the house,” Adrienne said. “We ended up having to life-flight Derrian to Salt Lake because his tumor had grown back in only three weeks and was causing neurological problems again.”
Royer has enlarged a photo of Derrian with the football players which he will frame and give to Derrian. He said he is glad the football players were able to do this for Derrian because they sometimes get a bad reputation.
“I’ve worked with the athletes quite a bit over the last few years, and I know sometimes they get a lot of negative press,” Royer said. “They didn’t do this to get their pictures in the paper but because they care.”
Derrian’s fast-growing tumor is now twice as large as the original and has grown into his brain tissue. He has also lost the ability to move on his left side, yet he said he is feeling good and considers himself lucky because of the special treatment he has received.
“I’m going to be on everything,” he said. “I’m going to be on TV in February, and I’m in the newspaper. I’m totally lucky.”
Adrienne said, “Derrian’s attitude is incredible and hopeful. He just has the greatest attitude.”