- April 24, 2024
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Family members of Daniel Fernandez remember the determination and positivity of the 23-year-old who lost his battle with testicular cancer.
Throughout a hard 13-month battle with testicular cancer, Daniel Fernandez, 23, had a smile on his face.
“He kept his head up high from the beginning,” his older brother, Rodrigo Fernandez, said. “He was one of those people that you felt like, ‘They got this.’ Up until the last minute, even the night before he passed, we were just having a good time and laughing. He kept his spirits really high.”
“I never heard him complaining or asking anyone for help,” his older sister, Rebeca Fernandez, said. “He was very independent.”
Daniel Fernandez died at 23, on April 10.
In his last year, he focused a lot of time and energy into raising his pit bull mix, Lana, whom he rescued from the Halifax Humane Society the day before he was diagnosed.
“Even though he was going through everything, he still raised the puppy,” Rodrigo Fernandez said, “and dedicated a lot of time into making her a nice, sweet dog. She was one of those therapeutic things for him during his sickness.”
Daniel’s girlfriend, Nina, was another form of therapy.
“The last picture he uploaded was him and her at the hospital,” Rebeca Fernandez said. “Her head was on his chest, and he titled it ‘the best medicine ever.’ Their love was huge.”
Still, the man nicknamed Iron Dan (because, like Iron Man, he had a metal plate in his chest) didn’t require too much coddling. Two weeks before he died, he participated in a 5K with his family and friends — all in matching “Avengers” T-shirts to support their super hero.
“He walked it all, and we finished it,” Rebeca Fernandez said. “We were last to come in, but it was awesome. The following Thursday, he was having a difficult time breathing, so I took him to the emergency room. When we got there, everything was not good, and they told us he had a few days, maybe a week, left.”
There was no history of testicular cancer in the Fernandez family, and Daniel didn’t show any symptoms until two weeks before his diagnosis. The only sign of the cancer was the fact that he didn’t think his right testicle had fully dropped.
“That was one of the things he regrets not opening his mouth and saying,” Rebeca Fernandez said. “He just thought it was how his body was made, especially since through annual checkups, nothing was never done or said about it.”
His family hopes to use Daniel’s story to bring awareness to testicular cancer, which can commonly affect men ages 17-30 and over 60.
“He was a strong, admirable fighter,” Rodrigo Fernandez said. “He really thought he was going to beat this.”
