[instrumental music]
- Angela: Bryan Dyer doesn't have a superpower,
but he's always loved stories about people who do.
- Bryan: Superheroes, in particular, were my thing growing up.
Like, for the longest time,
I was gonna be a comic book artist.
[pen scratching]
- Angela: And like those heroes,
he planned to use his abilities for good.
- I thought, later on in life, when I'm a millionaire artist
and I have, you know, money to burn,
and I've got all this free time,
I would love to do art for kids in the hospital.
- Angela: Like many origin stories,
there were a few hiccups along the way.
After college, Bryan struggled
to find steady illustration work until one day
he had a conversation with his sister.
- I explained to her this idea I'd had for
creating superhero illustrations for kids in hospitals.
And once I gave her that whole pitch, she thought,
"Well, why don't you just do it?"
- Angela: Bryan created 'You Are The Hero.'
It's a non-profit organization
that creates superhero portraits
for kids with chronic illnesses, free of charge.
[Legos clattering]
Kids like Jayden Hebberth.
Jayden loves Legos
and talking about his favorite superheroes.
- Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk.
[uplifting music]
- Angela: At 15 months old, Jayden was diagnosed
with retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer.
He endured seven months of treatment
before being declared cancer-free.
[uplifting music]
His right eye had to be removed.
- Kristin Hebberth: And I sent in a picture
and he's like, "What kind of powers do you want?
And so, we're like, of course, like bionic, amazing vision
'cause he's only got one eye, so.
And then, like, really cool glasses.
- Angela: Bryan lets the kids pick their hero's name,
colors, and superpowers.
He takes care of the rest.
[triumphant music] Meet Super Jay!
- And, I like, just started bawling.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh, Jayden, look at it.
It looks just like you."
And Jayden was like, "Oh, my gosh, that's so cool!"
- Seeing him and his mom just embrace it
and saying, you know, "He's got the super eye,
and he's got these super goggles,"
that was a really fun one to do.
- Angela: Keegan Denecke was seven years old
when she started having severe shoulder pain.
Her parents took her to a doctor for testing.
- Paul Denecke: So, we went in to the pediatrician
and he mentioned blast cells and leukemia,
and those are the only two things that we heard.
Everything else is just a blur.
[somber music]
- Angela: Keegan spent two years and two months
in treatment for leukemia.
- Keegan: It's a lot of bumps
and there's a lotta high points,
but there's also a lotta low points,
and it's hard, but you gotta battle it out.
- Angela: A battle that was no match
for Keegan's alter ego,
[triumphant music] Star Girl!
- My favorite colors at the time
were purple and pink,
so I chose those and yellow for the star.
[pencil scratching]
- Angela: Keegan's been cancer-free since December 2015.
Her dad says Bryan's drawing helped them
through the hard times.
- I don't know that people fully understand
that when you're going through that treatment,
the little things mean so much.
So, to see something like that,
to see your daughter as a superhero,
is really uplifting.
It's really a cool thing.
- Your illness is not your identity.
You know, you are the hero.
This is what you are.
This illustration,
this is how everybody sees you
and this is how you should see yourself.
[uplifting music]
- Angela: Liam Kirsch saw himself as a dinosaur.
At 13-months-old, his fussy behavior worried his parents
so much that they took him to the hospital.
- Stephanie Kirsch: It ended up being a grapefruit-sized tumor,
and so we were admitted that day.
It took a couple weeks,
like a week or so, to figure out what kind of cancer it is,
and then that's when he was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma.
- Angela: A cancer that affects muscle tissue.
Liam received chemotherapy and entered remission,
only to see the cancer return.
That's when he became
Bryan's first 'You Are The Hero' drawing.
Choosing a name was easy.
[heroic music]
Dino Liam, the cancer crusher.
- Yeah, he loved it.
He loved it 'cause then in his head, as a kid,
you know, he really thinks he is a dinosaur in a way.
[laughs]
- Angela: While Bryan's drawing provided a boost,
Liam's cancer battle was only beginning.
After another year in remission,
it came back a third time.
- Joe Kirsch: This was kinda what he was used to,
was his whole life was at the hospital
and dealing with it,
and he handled it,
handled it like a champ and--
- It almost just became our normal routine
after a while though.
You know, it's just how we lived.
[somber music]
- Angela: The tumors multiplied
and Liam was moved into hospice care.
On August 13th, 2017, Liam passed away.
He was four-years-old.
[somber music]
- Stephanie: He passed away and we had to follow the hearse.
You know, the hearse came and picked him up
and then we followed that to the funeral home.
That was it.
And then, you have to turn around and go home.
No, it's terrible.
[wind blowing]
- Angela: His parents made sure his spirit lived on
by putting Bryan's artwork
on Liam's tombstone.
[somber music]
- Obviously, I am incredibly...
humbled by that,
by their choice to do that.
And I visited it myself.
It took me about a year before I could finally muster up
the kind of emotional fortitude to go and see it.
I went by myself.
And it was a very emotional experience for me.
Like, I just kind of stood there quietly for a while.
[somber music]
- The girls will be in the car and we'll drive past
and they just wave out the window and say, "Hi, Liam."
So, it's...
Really thankful for it.
[somber music]
- Angela: It's a tribute to the impact of You are the Hero.
- Bryan: The response from parents
and response from the kids, in particular,
like, that's why I do this.
- Angela: In almost five years,
Bryan's drawn more than 140 illustrations.
- Paul Denecke: Every time I see him, I thank him
and thank him for what he does
and what he did, not only for my daughter
but for all these kids.
- Stephanie Kirsch: We just think it gives them kind of an outlet
to you know, see themselves in a different form
and see the strength that they do have.
- It just lifts their spirits up
and it lifts everybody's spirits up.
Like, who doesn't wanna be a superhero?
- Angela: So, while Bryan may not be more powerful
than a locomotive, or able to leap tall buildings
in a single bound, he's used his talent
to help those who need it the most.
And that's pretty super.
- It is an absolute joy to work on this stuff.
I sit here, four years later,
and I can honestly say to myself,
"I can't imagine doing anything else with my life."
[inspirational music]