Cancer patient Tom Gillin put chemo to a rap beat

"What's a brush? What's a comb? What's a bad hair day? Can you please remind me?" Tom Gillin, a bald cancer patient, raps into a mirror with an equally bald doctor at his side. Both are sporting curly blond wigs.

"I celebrate my time here," Gillin says later in his music video about life with cancer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

A 19-year-old who was discharged from the hospital Sept. 12 after five months of care for leukemia, Gillin created a parody rap video to two of Jay Z's songs.

The 3-1/2 minute video, "Bald So Hard," features costumes, props, and hospital staff rapping and dancing with Gillin to reworked lyrics. Since he posted it on YouTube on Aug. 29, it has drawn about 100,000 views.

Gillin had two main goals in creating the parody: to show what daily life is like for cancer patients and to get Jay Z to visit.

Originally from Upper Darby, Gillin was studying civil engineering as a freshman at the University of California at Los Angeles when he was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, an aggressive blood and bone-marrow cancer, in mid-April. He returned home the next day and started treatment immediately. Gillin since spent most of his time at Children's undergoing four cycles of chemotherapy before his discharge this month.

He came up with the idea for the video during his second cycle of treatment in June, and ultimately timed its release for a day before Jay Z's visit here on Labor Day Weekend for the Budweiser Made in America Festival.

Gillin went for a more humorous approach in the video, shining a doctor's bald head in one scene and singing "meal vouchers in the air make it rain everywhere," in another while throwing away slips.

He had seen documentaries and stories of young children with cancer covered in a depressing manner, Gillin said, so he wanted to show that young cancer patients are just as creative and optimistic as anyone.

"We're not just dying behind these doors," he said. "We're up and we're doing stuff."

Gillin made each verse explain an element of daily life for a cancer patient, from binging on Netflix to living with an IV pole.

"They tell me I'm gonna get married to my pole," Gillin sings in the video.

"She's always here with me like everywhere I go.

"She always hits me with that good chemo,

"And makes my marrow grow

"When counts are dropping low."

Gillin still needed to time video production with his chemo, which was followed by 10 to 12 days of low-energy recovery.

For Gillin, shooting the video, as well as negotiating with doctors, nurses, and other staff to get them involved, was fun. Because many doctors just want to do research and care for their patients, he had some persuading to do. He would try to be funny and joke around when doctors came to his room to get them on board. His primary oncologist is featured, twirling in a dress at the end of the video's first song.

Music therapist Mike Mahoney also appears. Mahoney, who watches a lot of rap videos, knew Gillin's ideas would take a lot of work. But Gillin had the commitment to pull it off beautifully, he said.

Lamia Barakat, director of psychosocial services at Children's, said adolescents and young adults face special challenges in adjusting to life with cancer because it can cause social isolation and worsen school or work performance. Art and music therapy can help patients share their experiences and show how they are coping, she said.

The hospital has developed a video diary program that provides equipment to take, edit, and create videos.

As Gillin's video views grow daily, Barakat said the response around the hospital had been heartening. One patient reported watching the video 25 times. Others sent Gillin balloons and an Oreo shake, and a nurse told him she was walking down the hall one day and all she could hear was his video.

Nurses have told him their favorite scene is the one where Gillin rocks back and forth on a prop speedboat.

One scene toward the end shows a hospital bracelet being cut off and dropped to the ground. That scene is now a reality for Gillin, who is in complete remission and preparing to return to UCLA in January to continue his studies.

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