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Ryan Reynolds uses his onscreen superhero cred to give back offscreen in super ways. The 44-year-old actor was recently informed of an 11-year-old fan named Brody Dery who is battling stage 3B Hodgkins Lymphoma and Crohn’s disease. After hearing about the boy and his love of the Deadpool franchise, Ryan kindly recorded a special video message just for him.
CKPG News reporter Caden Fanshaw shared the video this week, thanking the mega star for taking the time to send an uplifting message to Brody.
“Brody, it‘s Ryan Reynolds,“ the performer prefaces in his video. ”I just heard a little bit about your story and I wanted to send you this video and let you know that I’m thinking about you and I’m sending you tons of love and I’m sending you strength, whatever strength I’ve got.”
“Man, you have a ton of people in your life that love you so much,” the father-of-three added. ”I know you‘ve been going through it, I know it’s been a challenge lately but you know something, Brody, you’re just the man for the job. So I’m sending you lots of love. I hope I get to meet you in person one of these days and hang in there. Okay pal, bye.”
Brody’s mom Randi Dery shared her son’s reaction to seeing the video with Canadian news outlet CTV. She said his “jaw hit the floor” when he saw the celebrity message. “He keeps saying, ‘I feel special – I feel like I’m the movie star,’” she said, adding that he plays the clip on repeat.
When Brody was diagnosed with lymphoma last year, his mother left her job to take care of him. Randi elaborated on how the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened things, as their family repeatedly makes a nine-hour trip to and from Vancouver for Brody’s treatments.
In the family’s original video request, which was also shared by Caden, Randi said they “are huge fans of you and even more so fans of Deadpool.” She told Ryan: ”When we‘re having a hard day, we love watching Deadpool. The humor of those movies brings out the best of Brody.” We send lots of love and strength to the family!