When he was 5 years old and battling leukemia, the boy known as Batkid captivated the country as he dramatically “saved” Gotham from the bad guys in 2013. He just clinched another, much bigger, victory: He passed his 5-year mark being cancer free.
It is an important milestone for Miles Scott, now 10, who lives in Northern California and was diagnosed with leukemia when he was a year old.
“He’s doing great!” announced the Make-A-Wish Greater Bay Areafoundation, which helped make his crime-fighting dream come true in 2013 by staging several events across San Francisco as tens of thousands of people watched him lock up the Riddler during a bank heist and save a kidnapped victim from the Penguin.
The foundation pulled out all the stops for Miles, converting two black Lamborghinis into Batmobiles, as the tot was guided by pleas of help from San Francisco’s then-Police Chief Greg Suhr. A crowd of 20,000 people gathered in the streets around City Hall to watch the spectacle, and even President Barack Obama weighed in, saying “no more supervillains because Batkid cleaned up the streets. I love BatKid.”
Miles, who lives with his parents and younger brothers, is now just a regular kid who loves science and robotics, according to Make-A-Wish.
“Miles has returned to being a typical kid — playing little league, going to school, helping his family farm, and even selling his first market goat in the local fair!” according to a statement by Make-A-Wish.
At the time of the Batkid extravaganza, Miles had endured three years of cancer treatments, and the event was to mark his last round of “toxic drugs.”
“This wish has meant closure for our family and an end to over three years of putting toxic drugs in our son’s body,” his mother, Natalie Scott, said at the time.
Make-A-Wish said the event, which was watched in countries across the world, was helpful to the foundation’s overall mission to bring happiness to children with critical health conditions. During the peak of Batkid’s crime-fighting spectacle, Make-A-Wish websites logged about 1,400 hits per second.
“Miles brought smiles and hope to children living with life threatening medical conditions in San Francisco and all over the world,” the foundation said in a statement. “San Francisco is proud to have been a part of this once in a lifetime event"
Published in Washington Post