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Some unfortunate news entered the Silent Hill community. It involves 23 year old Brandon Delacruz. Brandon is a big fan of the Silent Hill series. Unfortunately, he also suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, a terrible degenerative disease that affects the lungs, stomach, liver and pancreas. Last year he was featured on Whitney’s site as her first Descent Into The Otherworld interviewee.
In his interview with Whitney, Brandon spoke of how his condition made him relate to Silent Hill 2‘s Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, a character with a deadly illness. Brandon felt a connection to the game and the character because his condition made him much like the character. “Then I took the time to look a little bit deeper into Silent Hill 2 when I was sicker and everything Mary was saying made sense to me. I didn’t ever try pushing people away like she did, but everything else was me. Feeling pathetic, worthless, hopeless, wishing that I wasn’t such a burden on my grandma.” said Brandon in the interview.
That statement alone saddens me to read. It wasn’t until last night that myself, Whitney, and other fans of the series came to learn that Brandon has been given 6 months to a year left to live. I usually write things on this site with some humor, but today I’m writing this with hot eyes, as this news is beyond unfair and depressing.
The news comes from Mary Sunderland’s original voice actress, Monica Taylor Horgan. Monica went to Facebook to relay the unfortunate news that she must have stumbled upon while logged into her fan account. In a very kind gesture, Monica is attempting to reach out to the faces behind Silent Hill, old and new, to do something for Brandon and his wife while there’s still time.
Tomm Hulett (series producer) , Guy Cihi (James Sunderland VA), Monica Taylor Horgan (Mary Sunderland VA), and Akira Yamaoka (series composer) are in the process of reaching out to Brandon, for what I’m assuming to be some type of collaborative effort to honor him as a fan and organize something special for him. This is a truly tragic turn of events, but I hope that the support from fellow Silent Hill fans and the people behind the games themselves can make Brandon as happy as possible before he departs.
Due to an immediate demand from fans who want to donate money to Brandon, a website was created by Joshua Reed, a fellow fan. You can visit the site and donate so that he and his wife can do something special with the time they have left together.
[Source]
