Joshua Brandon Ayres

Joshua Brandon Ayres was born January 10th 1978. From the moment he arrived in this world he touched people’s lives in a special way. Everyone loved to be around him; he made you smile. Joshua loved life and he lived it to the fullest. He loved bikes as a child and motorcycles as an adult. Most of all, he loved baseball. Starting out with T-ball at four and going on to high school baseball and softball as an adult and he was good! Joshua had a special way of making people laugh. He was always the life of the party, and was the best father to his 8 year old daughter, Cameron.

In September of 2005, Joshua had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital. He also had a high fever. After a MRI, we were told that Josh had a tumor the size of a tangerine on the upper right lobe of his brain. That’s when his journey began. His first surgery was that September 2005. After the surgery he underwent a year of oral chemo and months of radiation. For a while, he went into remission. However, in May of 2008, the tumor returned and it was very aggressive. Surgery was scheduled for June 19th, but it was growing at such a rapid rate, they moved the surgery up to June 2nd. Many clinical trials and chemo cocktails were to follow. The doctors and staff at MD Anderson were amazing. They tried everything possible. Josh was a trooper and a true fighter. He never gave up and neither did Dr. Conrad.

Josh began to lose his mobility of his left arm that summer. Towards the end of the year, his left leg started to go too. He began to use a cane. The tumor returned again in the spring of 2009. They tried radiation again and new chemo cocktails. Nothing seemed to be working. They decided to try one more surgery which they did in September 2009. After the surgery, Josh seemed to decline at a rapid rate, losing one ability after another. By Thanksgiving he was in a wheelchair full time. He had his last appointment with Dr. Conrad Jan 5th and with everyone’s regret, Josh had to be put on Hospice. It got to the point where all Josh could do was blink his eyes to communicate. Even at this point, Josh tried hard to make you smile. He’d pucker up and blow you a kiss, blink his eyes when we said ‘I love you’, which meant he loved us too.

Josh passed away peacefully surrounded by his family on January 23, 2010. With Josh’s 4 ½ years battling brain cancer, he always amazed us. He always seemed to beat the odds. I think he liked showing Dr. Conrad that he could! For instance, by all standards Josh was suppose to be in a wheelchair by July. He made it till the end of November, and then he still did not want to give up! We all want to thank everyone at MD Anderson for all their help and special care they gave to Joshua. Not only did they touch our lives, but they gave Joshua the opportunity to make a difference in this world and leave us all with a loving memory of an amazing man.