DJ hopes to spread love through music, art while battling stage 4 lung cancer

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (FOX 2) - Brandon Okamoto first learned he had lung cancer a year ago.

"I found out when I was 39 that I had cancer, serious cancer," he said. "I had not cried the whole year about me having cancer, and then I finally cried."

He began a specialized therapy at the University of Michigan that looked promising.

"At first, it went really well. By June they were almost saying I was going to be in remission, but between June and September I got sick," he said.

In November he found out the cancer had spread.

"They were like, 'well it has super spread into your left lung, and now it's spreading to your lymph nodes all up and down your arm and body. We've got to switch to chemo right now.'"

Okamoto now has stage four cancer.

"I started thinking about what if I just didn't exist soon? And that finally made me cry," he said.

But attitude is everything, and being sick has just made Okamoto more determined.

"I suddenly have this zest for life, so my new saying is screw cancer, but it's given me a new direction in life," he said.

Wish Upon a Wedding helped Okamoto and his wife renew their vows surrounded by their daughter and their five children from previous marriages.

Okamoto is also a DJ, artist, and electronic music creator, and he's been raising money for St. Jude's children's hospital.

Now, he's trying to raise money to help support his family by putting his music on the Patreon platform. He is hoping people will subscribe because he just had to quit his job at an elementary school to go through chemo.

"I had to create a Patreon, which is a platform that allows creators to get paid, so now I get to make music and for as little as $3 a month you can have access to all my free music that I made and any future music that I made," he said.

It would help with other expenses as well. Over the summer, a drunken driver crashed into their two cars in front of their auburn hhills home and they were totaled. Their new car needs repairs, and it's just more than they can afford, so their friend Laura Kondek reached out to FOX 2.

"He's just very humble and upbeat and even though he's gone through so much he's always so optimistic and a real inspiration," she said.

As Okamoto gets ready to start his second of four rounds of chemotherapy, that optimism is everything.

"I have all this scariness about cancer and chemo, but I can choose to keep walking forward while still facing that," he said. "I want to spread my love through my music and my art and I can't wait to show you guys what I'm going to create, about what's coming next."

Okamoto's next music fundraiser for St. Jude's is streaming this Saturday. Watch here.

Learn more about the organization here. You can also donate to a GoFuneMe for the family here.