Ryan Reynolds has penned a moving goodbye letter to a 13-year-old friend and Deadpool fan after his death from cancer.
Reynolds became friends with Connor McGrath three years ago through the Make A Wish foundation after he was diagnosed with high-risk acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Reynolds travelled to his home in Edmonton, in Canada, to surprise him when his cancer returned in 2013.
He also took Connor to a special screening of Deadpool after its release, making him the first person to ever see the film.
In an open letter on Facebook, the Canadian actor paid tribute to Connor and his parents after the teenager passed away at his home. “For three straight years, my friend, Connor McGrath drop-kicked cancer... Not sure how... Maybe the cancer cheated... But the fight came to an end two nights ago.
“In my wildest dreams, I can't imagine how hard this is for his parents Kim and Gerald - along with his extended family in Newfoundland.
“Connor was 13. But this kid... He was smart. He was funny. And not just funny 'for a kid' - or funny 'for a person battling something awful'. He was unqualified funny. He had that... thing.”
“I'm grateful I got to orbit Connor's world for a brief time. Grateful for the pages and pages of hilarious texts between us. Grateful to his parents for allowing Connor to spend time with a foul-mouthed child in the body of a 39-year-old.
“I called Connor, 'Bubba'. And he called me 'Bubba2'. We met because he loved Deadpool. In a certain sense, he WAS Deadpool. Or, at least everything Deadpool aspires to be; balancing pain, fearlessness, love and a filthy (filthy!) sense of humour in one body. I wish he could've stuck around a lot longer.”
Connor’s family had been trying to raise $800,000 to pay for an experimental chemotherapy treatment at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. They had raised $35, 522 before his death, according to the Edmonton Journal.
