Chad Tough: 4-year-old boy fighting brain cancer gets a superhero theme song

Chad Carr has brain cancer.

Shortly after the 4-year-old grandson of former Michigan football coach Lloyd Carr was diagnosed with Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG), an inoperable brain tumour, family friends offered to write Chad his own superhero theme song to draw attention to Chad and pediatric cancer.

The Engelbert family wrote “Chad Tough,” a song that celebrates the little boy’s fighting spirit.

"He’s brave just like a Wolverine, the most amazing kid you’ve seen; he won’t stop fighting until he’s saved the day," Ariel, Zoey and Eli Engelbert sing.

"Chad’s mom is using hashtag ‘ChadTough’ for social media; I said your super hero name is Chad Tough,” Matt Engelbert, the singers’ father, told WWJ’s Zahra Huber. “And the next morning, within a half hour, they had written the song and I was already out in meetings assembling a team that would help them put it together.”

Chad stars in the superhero music video which also features his brothers TJ, 9, and Tommy, 7, his cousins, his father, University of Michigan’s basketball team, and Chad’s grandfather.

The proceeds of the music video will be given to the Carr family to help cover Chad’s medical bills. Anything leftover will go to Frank Cancer Research for Children.

“Today it just it’s everywhere it’s good because again — we want people to know his story, we want people to pray for him, we want people to know about pediatric cancer…,” Chad’s mother, Tammi Carr, told ABC News. “This is just bringing more attention, it’s a great song. It’s something I’m going to cherish forever.”

“I know the kids are proud of it but it’s because of Chad — he’s just so inspiring when you see his face and you can’t help but fall in love with this little kid — he needs a miracle here. So if this songs helps in any way, we are thrilled,” Matt Engelbert told WWJ.

Since the dire diagnosis — fewer than 10 per cent of children diagnosed with DIPG survive two years from diagnosis — Chad’s community has rallied around him and his family, raising more than $76,000 through the Chad Tough Fund.

"We’re praying for a miracle and he’s doing really well…he had a really wobbly gait for a while there and his eyes were starting to cross and he — it’s all better at this point so the radiation is doing something,” Tammi told ABC News, “and we’re just you know living day by day and we’re asking people to pray for him and we’re trying to get the word out across the country because we’ve seen — we believe that it can happen and we believe in that power.”

Tammi told ABC News that Chad doesn’t know the severity of his illness, nor does he really understand why he’s getting all this positive attention.

"He struggles a little bit with ‘why do people think I’m a superhero?’ He says ‘I know what that song is about. It’s about me. I’m not a superhero,’" she said.

A few weeks ago, Chad was named honorary captain for the Michigan game against Minnesota, with players and coaches wearing orange #ChadTough wristbands.

This past weekend, after Michigan State beat the Michigan Spartans, both marching bands formed #ChadTough on the field in support of Chad’s fight with cancer.