Two-year-old cancer patient and metalhead meets Metallica

MONTREAL (CityNews) – An almost three-year-old battling Langerhans cell histiocytosis, a rare form of cancer, and one of the world’s youngest metalheads got the chance to meet the drummer, from one of the biggest heavy metal bands in the world: Metallica’s Lars Ulrich.

“We had a good conversation with him, and it was a very good moment. I will remember that moment all my life,” said Yannick Rossignol, father of the three-year-old.

“He’s a very generous person. We love that, we love him, and him too, he loves Milan. It’s a very beautiful moment.”

Milan Rossignol was diagnosed with the rare cancer close to two years ago.

“For a long time, this has kind of been in no man’s land. A lot of people have had a lot of trouble deciding if it’s a cancer or if it’s not a cancer,” said Dr. Sharon Abish, a Pediatric Oncologist at Montreal Children’s Hospital.

Langerhans cell helps regulate the immune system and are normally found throughout the body, especially in the skin, lymph nodes, lungs, liver and in bone marrow. Langerhans cell histiocytosis disorder is when those cells are produced in excess and build up in the body.

“The current feeling is that it is and it’s certainly been treated with chemotherapy. And Milan’s form of this unusual diagnosis is even more unusual in that he has severe involvement of both his lungs and his liver.”

Since being diagnosed Milan has spent most of his life in the hospital. And his parents who have two older children, who are unable to visit Milan in the hospital due to COVID restrictions, have had to quit their jobs in order to care for him.

“I think Milan takes his energy from listening to a lot of Metallica music. Lars Ulrich I think is his Idol,” said Rossignol.

“Initially I thought it was just dad who was into it but if you watch Milan, he just loves it,” explained Dr. Sharon Abish Pediatric Oncologist.

“I’ve known Milan since November, and he’s not even three yet and every time I would go see Milan and his father, they would be watching videos of Metallica. Which I never really understood because my children watch Raffie and Sharon Lewis and Bram, they certainly didn’t watch Metallica,” she added.

“I showed Milan every single Metallica concert around the world and that’s why right now Milan loves that,” said Rossignol.

“Dad told me a long time ago that his dream would be to be able to take Milan to a Metallica concert, which clearly both at his age and his clinical condition and in times of COVID is not something that would be realistic. So, Dr. Abish and her colleagues decided to tweet the band to ask if they would meet their youngest fan since he might not be able to attend a concert anytime soon. And it didn’t take long for Lars Ulrich to tweet back and for a zoom meeting to be arranged,” said Dr. Abish.

“He was very receptive and I think the fact that he has a less than three-year-old who is one of his biggest fans and the fact that poor Milan has been in the hospital so much since the time of his diagnosis he felt it was something he would really like to do,” she added.