Hospice patient hears empowering messages from his favorite Star Trek actors

CINCINNATI (FOX19) - Julie Moores said she recently received upsetting news that her best friend for several decades, Mike’s, cancer had returned.

She’s the regional manager of business development at Heartland Hospice and helped him with receiving services.

Moores said Mike is a life-long Star Trek fan and wanted to do something special for him that would fulfill one of Mike’s life-long dreams.

Moores reached out to the ProMedica Hospice Memorial Fund, formerly Heartland Hospice Memorial Fund, for help. From there, everything fell into place perfectly and she was able to give Mike the surprise of a lifetime.

“Mike was hospitalized for almost five months last year. After his stay, he was sent home with a plan that he would be on the road to recovery. A few weeks after his return home, he had a follow-up scan that showed his cancer had returned and spread to multiple areas. Due to the aggressive nature of his type of cancer, his oncologist only expected him to live two more months. This was a terrible shock to all of us, especially his significant other, Ben. Mike and Ben are the kindest and funniest people I have ever known, so I really wanted to do something that would brighten their days and help them to feel special during such a difficult time. I thought it would be a great idea to reach out and try to get personal video messages from some of their favorite Star Trek actors,” Moores said in a news release.

They received messages from Brent Spiner, who portrayed Data on the series, and Jonathan Frakes, who portrayed Riker.

In the message from Spiner, he sent his love, good vibes and spirit to Mike.

“I understand you’re going through a really, really difficult time right now. I wish I had the words or the ability to make everything better, but unfortunately, I’m just an actor. I think we have something else in common. You know, I’m of a mind where love is pretty much everything and the best thing that ever happened to me was getting my job on Star Trek and the best part of that was the closeness that the cast and I had. What we have in common there I think is how well loved you are - and that’s so clear,” he said.

Moores said being able to surprise him with these videos was incredibly meaningful to her and the hospice team.

“When I showed the videos, Mike and Ben were beyond excited but also shocked that we were able to obtain personal messages. Mike said, ‘I can’t believe you guys would do this for me. I want these videos burned to a flash drive so they can be placed in my urn with my ashes so I can keep them always,’” she said.

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