Xavier Haley died last year. He had a brain tumor. He left behind a daughter along with a legacy of compassion and caring that his loved ones continue to honor.

On Saturday, dozens of people showed up to Second Presbyterian Church in Salisbury to “Go Gray for Zay.”

It was the second annual Brain Tumor Awareness Walk, the first having been in the immediate wake of Haley’s death last year and it was scheduled for May to coincide with Brain Tumor Awareness Month. The National Brain Tumor Society encourages people to participate in #GrayMay to “come together to support, empower and amplify the many voices of the brain tumor community. The brain tumor experience is full of extraordinary challenges and extraordinary hope — the gray area that falls in between is what drives us, unrelentingly, toward our shared mission to conquer and cure brain tumors, once and for all.”

Haley’s brother Amhad Bates is determined to keep Zay’s memory alive and to try and to give his passing additional meaning by using it to help others. He remarked how his brother was so much more than just a disease. He was a person, with hobbies, a career and a family.

“He was different,” Bates said. “He really brought people towards him. He had a great energy like you just gravitated towards him.”

Bates said that was never more apparent than when his brother was in the hospital.

“He had so many people at the hospital,” Bates said. “When he passed away, the nurses and doctors were saying they had never seen it like that. But that’s how much he touched his friends and family. He was just a good-spirited dude who knew how to make you laugh.”

Bates also remembers his brother, the athlete.

“He was very athletic,” Bates said. “He played sports, football and basketball.”

His mother remembered something similar.

“Xavier was a wonderful person who loved life, his family and friends, sports and fishing,” Tracey Haley said.

The friends that Haley made became family and still are today.

“Since Xavier’s passing, I have received a huge amount of support from the community,” Tracey Haley said. “His friends check on me daily and they still come over for Sunday dinner. My neighbors have come by to mow my lawn or just roll my garbage can to the end of my driveway.”

Bates added that his brother had a mind and eye for fashion. Their line was called Motion Boys Entertainment. Bates produced the content and Haley focused on merchandise.

Showcasing those parts of Haley was part of what Saturday’s event was about, along with being informative about the realities of brain cancer.

“We opened up with a prayer,” Bates said. “Then we went into a scripture. And then after that, we went into a brain tumor facts, okay, you know, go ahead and let them know about the signs, symptoms, what you should do, you know, do different things like that.”

Tracey Haley laid out how those symptoms first presented themselves in her son.

“Xavier had a seizure in January of 2023,” she said. “That was the first seizure he had ever had. After that seizure, he went to the hospital for observation and to have tests run. After he got discharged from the hospital, he followed up with his PCP and was complaining of a headache, which he never did. Since he had that seizure and was still complaining of a headache his doctor ordered an MRI, which showed a tumor.”

Bates hopes that events like Saturday’s and movements to raise awareness of brain cancer can help save others. If it saves another person, Bates knows his brother’s life will have just meant that much more.

To learn more about brain cancer signs, visit https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/brain-tumor/symptoms-causes/syc-20350084. More information about Brain Tumor Awareness Month can be found at braintumor.org.