Walter Wetzel had met Ryan Lamantia nearly eight years ago in a hospital waiting room. Both were very sick----Ryan with brain cancer, Walter with leukemia  . Ryan, who was 3 at the time, began making silly faces at Walter and chatted about going home to change into his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles costume. Several days later, Ryan moved to another hospital. Though they saw each other only a handful of times after that, Walter never forgot Ryan. "He inspired me to fight against my cancer," said Walter, now 17, a football player. Then one day, Walter saw a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt at a mall, which made him decide to search out Ryan. Back home, Walter typed in "Ryan Lake in the Hills brain cancer" on his computer, and a link to a Facebook page for Ryan came up. But, the news was shocking. Ryan had died on Sept. 8, 2005. He was 6. The Facebook  page  was  for  the  Ryan  Lamantia Foundation, a non-profit organization that Ryan's family formed after his death to raise money for brain cancer research. Walter left this message right away: ."Ryan is my hero. My trips to the hospital were always horrible, until the day I met Ryan." Ryan's mom's eyes were filled with tears as she read Waiter's message. "We always knew Ryan was special, but to hear it from somebody else, it really means the world to us," Lamantia said. Walter wasn't the only person who was greatly impressed with Ryan. "He was a little superhero," said Wendy Stellpflug, a nurse at Children' s Memorial Hospital. "Ryan always kept his spirits high, even after he suffered hearing loss and experienced 14 operations." "Ryan didn' t let his illness stop him. He always had a smile on his face," said Dr. Stewart Goldman, the doctor who treated Ryan. Walter and his family have been in touch with the Lamantias for the past few weeks. And last week, they met for the first time since Ryan's death. The families told stories of being affected by cancer so young and Walter expressed his hope to volunteer with Ryan' s foundation. We know from the text that Walter  _  .
survived the cancer experienced 14 operations searched for Ryan on the Facebook founded the Ryan Lamantia Foundation