From a letter to request special prayers that Ben wrote to a special Sister: 

"My name is Ben S.  I am in eighth grade with my friend Brett.  I would like to tell you about Brett.  Brett came to (my school) in fourth grade and I will tell you, at that point, I do not think I have met a nicer, more caring, friendly kid than Brett.  He always said hi to every kid in our class every morning when he got to school.  You could ask every kid in my class and all of us will say that they have never heard him say anything bad about a kid ever.  At home, he would always try to help in any way that he could, but because of the tumor, that has been limited to small things.  In the first week of summer out of sixth grade, Brett started to get extreme migraines.  After about two weeks, they went to the doctor, and they said that he had a stage three brain tumor.  Since then, Brett has undergone multiple operations, one of which was thirteen hours long.  He has been under intense radiation and chemotherapy, and because of this, he has sometimes missed very long periods of school.  Through all of these operations, Brett has developed a limp, lost (some) control of his right arm, and has a slant of his face.  Because of the tumor's location, Brett struggles to stay awake. 

Brett has a very strong faith and a deep love for God.  He prays regularly, and goes to church as much as he can.  He wears a prayer necklace to Padre Pio, his favorite saint and confirmation name.  Brett is a very hard worker in school, and he tries very hard to keep up.  Brett doesn't want to be treated differently and especially he wants to be treated like a normal eighth grader.  When it came time to decide what he wanted to do for his Make-A-Wish, there were options like Hawaii, the beach and many others, but Brett did not want that.  He wanted to be a priest for a day.  So, he got his wish and he got to be a priest in the Chrism mass."