Local boy meets favorite YouTube star through Make-A-Wish

It’s not every day you get to meet your hero but for Rineyville boy Quincy Sweatt, Wednesday wasn’t any other day.

Thanks to Make-A-Wish of Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, Quincy, 8, met his favorite YouTube star CoryxKenshin.

“It was so amazing,” Quincy said, adding he helped CoryxKenshin play a new game titled “The Ingredients.” “It was an honor to play with him.”

Quincy’s mother, Natalie Sweatt, said because Quincy’s cancer has caused him to lose the use of his arms and legs, Quincy was directing CoryxKenshin in the gameplay.

“Typically I’m playing video games or his dad is playing video games and he directs us through them,” she said. “For him it was really nice to watch someone and get to direct someone who actually knows what they’re doing.”

CoryxKenshin, who has 13.7 million subscribers on YouTube, has more than 5.7 billion views on the site. His given name is Cory Williams and his channel receives about 54.6 million views a month.

“He couldn’t form words at first,” she said of Quincy’s interaction with CoryxKenshin. “When we were on the phone with Make-A-Wish, he was just squealing and smiling. It was a different kind of happiness and excitedness that we just don’t get to have very often.”

Sweatt said CoryxKenshin is known for playing horror games, one of which is “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and his comedic narration.

“He is really popular,” she said, adding one of their favorite bits he does is Spooky Scary Sunday. “He does like spooky videos and plays scary video games, but he’s hilarious and he’s so funny to watch. He has hundreds and hundreds of videos and I am pretty sure we have seen them several times.”

For their wish, Sweatt said they didn’t have to leave their home. Make-A-Wish showered Quincy with gifts of his favorite things throughout the day culminating with the video chat with CoryxKenshin.

In addition to gift cards to various restaurants and other food services, a basket full of snacks arrived and a few dozen Krispy Kreme doughnuts were delivered by a Make-A-Wish father who now volunteers for the organization.

“He considered getting Krispy Kreme doughnuts every day for a year,” Sweatt said about one consideration Quincy had prior to deciding to meet CoryxKenshin.

Quincy also was able to add to his collection of almost 180 Funko Pop figures, many of which have been given to him since his diagnosis, with special-edition creations made especially for Make-A-Wish.

“They made sure the whole day was taken care of,” she said. “It was really neat. Yesterday and today, we’re still receiving gifts from them.”

And Quincy will receive a copy of his video chat with CoryxKenshin.

“And I’m going to watch it again, and again, and again,” he said. “He was very nice.”

Sweatt said Quincy has been battling an initial tumor in his cervical area of his spine and completed 30 rounds of radiation in January. Since then, the family received his official diagnosis, Diffuse Midline Giloma.

“That came with the news that this is currently an inoperable and incurable form of childhood cancer,” she said.

Even with clinical trials giving children a better quality of life and more time, Sweatt said the prognosis is not good.

“We were told this is a very aggressive type of tumor and given a prognosis of nine to 12 months,” she said.

Since January, Quincy has received treatment at Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville and Nationwide Hospital in Columbus, where it was discovered Quincy’s tumor had metastasized and started to spread to other parts of his spinal cord.

Quincy now is entered into a clinical trial requiring Quincy to take two chemotherapy pills for the first phase, Sweatt said.

Sweatt said Quincy is taking one of the drugs, but the family is in its third appeal with their insurance to get the second drug approved.

While undergoing treatment has been hard, Sweatt said Quincy has taken it in stride.

“Quincy’s been so positive throughout all this and everyday he’s happy,” she said. “I’m not kidding. That’s something he’ll say about 20 times a day. ‘I’m so happy to be here with you.’ ”

But Sweatt said his happiness Wednesday was on another level.

“I’m hanging onto the moment that we could feel normal,” she said. “For the moment, I wasn’t in my head. I didn’t have anything in the back of my mind that I was worried about. It was a relief to see him so happy.”

A Go Fund Me has been set up for the family to pay for Quincy’s medical expenses. It has raised more than $7,000 of the $15,000 goal. To donate to the family, go to bit.ly/3RniCJ0.