Eric McLean has spent the past three years documenting his fight with cancer on the YouTube channel Donate2LIFE. Last night he posted his final video. The 28-year-old Wisconsin native revealed that the doctors have nothing left that they can do.
“We got some really bad news last week, and there’s nothing we can do,” McLean said at the beginning of the 8:48-long “Eric’s Confession Final,” which he recorded in his parents’ backyard. “Ninety-six percent of my cerebral nervous system is cancerous, and my sciatic nerve right now is being crushed by cancer so badly that I am in some of the worst pain you can imagine.”
“Eric’s Confessions” first popped onto YouTube screens June 24, 2009, when, from the same spot in his parents’ backyard, he revealed that he had Leukemia and would have to undergo treatment to combat the disease.
Since then, McLean has recorded 108 videos, ranging from the thrilling to the revealing to the extremely hopeful.
“I’ve fought a long time,” he said last night. “This is it. I don’t know what else to say. There are no more options, and I have started my hospice care.
“I’ve had the greatest support system that anybody in the world could ever ask for. My doctor said that the average survival for someone with my sub-type of cancer is 18 months—18 months. That’s not very good, but I made it here almost 10 years—over nine.”
Redditor therealdohr, a friend of McLean, posted the final confession onto r/videos last night, adding that his buddy’s likely on his last days or weeks, at best.
“Eric brought me to tears of laughter so many times, from baseball games, to riding our motorcycles, to getting beat by 12 year olds on Call of Duty,” he wrote. “My favorite was this giveaway in Milwaukee where they had Bernie Brewer yard gnomes for the Brewers. We found them on the beach and you have never seen a guy run so fast with a bad hip. We got one and it was like the lottery.”
McLean will leave behind his two parents, brothers, and a sister, as well as his wife Cari, with whom he recently celebrated their first wedding anniversary.
“My doctor says I won,” McLean said. “He says I won. I got to believe him. There’s nothing else I could have done. I fought to the end. I never said no.
“Every time we wanted to try a new experimental drug, I stood up to the plate. I swung my bat as hard as I could. Ballgame’s over, guys. With that, I’m going to say ‘bye’ for the very last time. I love you all. Thank you all, and I hope you all live long and happy lives.”
Photo via YouTube