Bartley family keeping up Aiden’s legacy after his death from cancer
Aiden Bartley was getting some of the strongest chemotherapy treatment on the market, and then getting up early to hit dek hockey practices and games for the last two years of his life.
His parents, Michael and Megan Bartley, remember their late son as a superhero, and will honor the-11-year-old who died from a form of pancreatic cancer rarely found in children by creating a foundation in his name with a superhero theme.
“We’re going with the phrase, ‘Fight like Aiden, fight like a superhero,’” Michael Bartley said. “He was something else.”
March 17 was the six-month anniversary of Aiden’s death, a difficult milestone to process for the Bartleys, especially because March 20 would have been his 12th birthday.
Megan and Michael Bartley and Aiden’s younger siblings planned to visit Aiden’s grave, and commemorate his birthday by inviting his whole class from school — a tradition for the young Bartley.
“It has definitely been very, very rough,” Megan Bartley said. “Aiden is very very missed and there’s days it still really hasn’t hit that he’s gone.
“We basically wanted to sit there and have a big birthday party just like we normally would,” Megan Bartley continued. “We are gathering at 6 p.m. At his grave. We’re going to open Pokemon cards, set off a Chinese lantern. I asked people to bring stories and pictures for him to share.”
Even six months after Aiden’s death, his parents are getting messages from people of Butler County with messages of support. Megan Bartley said she didn’t realize how much of an impact Aiden had on the community.
She said the couple is starting the foundation as a way to not only give back to the community that gave so much to them, but to help other parents who have children going through struggles similar to what they and Aiden went through.
The Aiden Bartley Foundation is on its way to becoming a certified foundation in Pennsylvania — Michael Bartley just has to finish filing some paperwork. He said the foundation will help supply funds to parents of children who are undergoing chemotherapy treatment, to help them with travel expenses.
“No parent should ever have to decide whether to work to feed their child or to go to work and miss a chemo appointment,” Michael Bartley said. “The reality is that’s what a lot of people have to face. We had to face that ourselves. We had to fundraise wherever we could.”
Megan Bartley said the couple plans to work with Cleveland Clinic and patients there, because of the family’s relationship with the cancer unit there.
“Since Cleveland Clinic was so great in Aiden’s care, what I wanted to do was get gas gift cards for people going to the clinic and write a personalized note in each one,” Megan Bartley said. “We also want to establish a scholarship at Butler school district for graduating seniors. I want to get scholarship up and running for next year’s school season.”
The Bartleys traveled from their home in Butler to Pittsburgh, Cleveland and even Los Angeles regularly during the time Aiden was going through cancer treatment to get chemotherapy and see doctors. Michael Bartley said he hopes the foundation can help other parents cover some of those expenses, while also supplying aid to the staff — mainly social workers — at hospitals with cancer units.
Research will also be a focus of the foundation, Michael Bartley said, because there is not enough research for childhood cancers, exemplified by Aiden being diagnosed with a type that typically only affects adults.
“The goal is to set it up to last pretty much forever,” Michael Bartley said. “The other goals we want to achieve is to grow this enough, this is years down the road, but make donations to cancer research for kids, because there's not enough for kids.”
While the family still has medical bills to pay off relating to Aiden’s cancer treatment, Michael and Megan Bartley agreed that they wanted to honor Aiden by giving back in a way that he would have. Michael Bartley said his son was a giving child, who didn’t hesitate to share his good fortunes with others.
“A YouTuber gave him a million coins in currency in Roblox, he shared half of it with a friend,” Michael Bartley said. “He thought of other people.”
