A teen secretly posted a video to his mom’s Facebook account about last-chance treatment for his stage 4 bone cancer. The video caught the attention of key lawmakers — and now, Will Roberts is getting his treatment.
“I’ve been fighting osteosarcoma for the last 16 months. It’s a very, very, very deadly and very hard to treat bone cancer, and my chemos are just not working,” the 15-year-old from Tuscaloosa County, Ala. explained in a video posted to his mom Brittney Battles Roberts’ Facebook page without her knowledge on Wednesday, April 22.
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“My mom doesn’t know I’m doing this. Yall pls share this my mom might be mad but at this point I’m trying to help her in any way I can right now,” he wrote in the caption. Will said he’s been struggling with the bone cancer since January 2025, and “just not much is working. I mean, we’ve tried. basically everything there is, and we’re getting towards the end of the road, and I need help.”
He shared that his mom has “just been having sleepless, sleepless, sleepless nights” as she stays up researching treatment options. And he said, “my mom’s found this drug that could that could possibly save my life if we get it in time.”
The drug, DeltaRex-G, is an experimental treatment that shuts down a gene that cancer cells need to grow. The National Library of Medicine said that in some patients with advanced cancer — including osteosarcoma — treatment with DeltaRex-G has led to “long term survivorship” of ten years or more.
“I want my life, just any anybody does, but even if this won’t work out for me, if this drug can get out in the future, I mean, it’ll help hundreds of other kids,” Will said, adding, “I really want it to get out in time for it to help me, too.”
His message was heard in time. The video went viral — as of May 1, it had been viewed more than 6 million times — eventually reaching Dr. Mehmet Oz. The former cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality now runs the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and as Brittney, an influencer with more than 250,000 followers on her page, shared in post on April 23, he called the family to tell them he “personally contacted the developing doctors of the drug DeltaRex-G in Santa Monica…and just like that…movement began.”
The family is now preparing to head to Santa Monica, Calif. — as soon as Will’s platelet counts hit the required threshold. Friends of the family have started a GoFundMe to help fund the trip to California. On April 27, Brittney said in another Facebook post that “we will likely be booking flights while sitting in the clinic” if Will is cleared to fly.
“I am overwhelmed in a way I can’t even explain. I don’t even know if I’ve asked the right questions yet. I just know something shifted… and it shifted FAST,” his mom wrote online. “But make no mistake…This started with a 15 year old who refused to stay quiet, watched his parents dying on the inside along with him, and knowing he could give many others a chance even if he didn’t make it in time to get a chance for himself.”
