Brian Dorman and Adam Wheatcroft never met, but Dorman believes they could have been friends.
Upon learning of the 21-year-old’s battle against cancer (and knowing someone who went to school with him) the director of an Independence Township music academy determined to help the family.
“It’s somebody about the same age as I am,” he said, also feeling for the family because he lost his mother when he was in high school. “I know what it’s like to lose somebody in my family.”
Although Adam Wheatcroft died Oct. 28, his memory will live on because the impact he had on people’s lives.
He attended Clarkston Christian School through fifth grade, eventually graduating from Waterford Our Lady of the Lakes. At the time of his death, he was a student at James Madison University in Virginia.
One of his claims to fame was archery, a sport he learned at age seven through the Oakland County Sportsmen’s Club.
With many local and state championships, he earned seven world records, was a two-time Junior World Archery Champion and a World University Champion, and his parents spoke fondly of the opportunities he had for international travel, with Sweden, France and Thailand among his many stops.
“He was the kind of kid that, when he did something, he would keep doing it and doing it until he perfected it,” according to his father, Rob Wheatcroft. Adam pursued bowling and the guitar with the same zeal. Both parents said their only child had so many varied interests, including listening to 1970s music and playing bingo with senior citizens.
“He was just an all-around good person,” his mother Lynette said. “Little kids just loved him. He’s got a seven-year-old cousin who thinks he’s just great and wants to be just like him.”
There seemed to be nothing to slow him down, but this past spring, Adam began having headaches and nausea. In May, he visited the family doctor, who immediately referred him to an ophthalmologist.
The ophthalmologist found fluid behind his eyes, and a subsequent hospital examination discovered a brain tumor.
Surgeons were unable to remove the entire tumor, so it was on to specialized radiation treatment. In August, Adam returned to college, determined to get back to the normal routine.
After the first day of classes, however, he had his first seizure. Over time other complications developed, and doctors eventually found cancer in his spine, something for which no effective treatment has been developed.
Ironically, the official diagnosis was determined to be a form of skin cancer that traveled to other parts of the body.
“They said he had that tumor no more than 18 months,” his father said.
“It happened really fast,” his mother said. “They never found it on any other part of his body. They said it can start on your skin, and you’ll never even know it.”
Even when his conditioned worsened, Adam apparently kept a good attitude.
“He never complained,” Lynette Wheatcroft said. “He just accepted it. He was tough.”
Dorman, who owns Brian’s Academy of Music, subcontracts with 13 other teachers from Clarkston, Ortonville and parts of Genesee County. Dorman decided to donate $250 cash, plus the academy’s profits for November, and 10 of his teachers agreed to donated 40 percent of their fees from November.
“I didn’t go to them,” he said. “They came to me.”
He is collecting money from students and other interested parties, and is hoping to present more than $1,000 to the family in time for Thanksgiving.
Lynette Wheatcroft’s fellow employees at SBC also collected money for the family, as did Rob Wheatcroft’s co-workers at the Orion Township GM plant. The Oakland County Sportsmen’s Club has reached out, and the HoytUSA archery supply company (and Adam’s sponsor) has placed a memorial page on their web site (www.hoytusa.com). A national collegiate archery tournament in Illinois has been renamed in the honor of Adam Wheatcroft, who won the competition just before his brain tumor was discovered.
“Everyone has been so generous,” Lynette said. “It’s unbelievable — people we don’t even know. There are a lot of good people.”
“He just blew us away,” Rob Wheatcroft said of Dorman, who visited the family at the funeral home and later called the family with his desire to help. “How can this kid 21 years old — we don’t even know him — have it so together?”
Earlier, there were concerns about medical expenses, but the family says there is no real financial crisis. As time goes on, however, they do not rule out the possibility of a memorial of some kind, and Dorman said he would support that.
Those interested in donating may visit Dorman’s web site at www.teachesmusic.com.