This is Brendon Coates, age 5. He is a free spirited, loving & very energetic kid who has just earned his 1st degree black belt from Premier Martial Arts in Abilene, Texas from Sigung James Cox.


Brendon started training as a little dragon at Premier in December 2007. Brendon has always loved martial arts through kids shows such as Power Rangers, etc., but he was not able to participate until we was able to regain his strength from a very difficult battle.

Brendon was diagnosed August 25, 2006 with brain cancer named Ependymoma, which also metatsisized to his spine as well. Immediately this young childs life was turned upside down. He underwent brain surgery to remove the tumor on September 1st, 2006, then underwent 4 months of rehab to learn how to walk, talk and eat again. Along with his rehab he underwent 4 months of IV chemotherapy followed by 6 weeks of full cranial & spinal radiation all done in Ft. Worth, Texas, 2 ½ hours from his home in Abilene.

Brendon returned to school (daycare) July 2007 after being out of a "normal" social child's life for 11 months. He regained strength & love for life quickly and returned to a life of normalcy of a 4 years old. He did very good and went for checkups & MRI's every 3 months where there were little traces of the cancer still in his spine but all remained stable. Unfortunately January 2008 Brendon's cancer in his brain came back Brendon was put on a clinical trial chemo which failed & the tumor grew double the size to 22 mm. He was then put on oral chemo which seemed to stabilize the tumor for 1 month. Then an opportunity arose at St. Judes Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee where Brendon & his mom flew every 2 weeks for chemotherapy by IV. After 2 months of being on the clinical trial, Brendon's family was told once again that the treatment was not working and that the tumor had grown to almost 4 cm again. A second surgery is not really an option at this point so they have been told that because of the location of the tumor now, it is saturating the Pons area of the brain which, if removed would completely destroy him or possibly result in death.

Brendon's family has been told to enjoy their child and focus on quality of life which is exactly what they are trying to do. It is the little things that we look back and realize were the big things. Brendon is definitely an angel to his family as well as everyone who meets him.