When we meet Layton he is 36 years old. Six years prior to filming he was an accomplished photographer with a travel bug married to the girl of his dreams. During filming he is an accomplished photographer with a travel bug married to the girl of his dreams and dying. Living with end-stage melanoma and several inoperable brain tumours Layton vows to take life one step at a time. He’s stopped asking the doctors, “how long?”, and started sharing his experiences with terminal cancer online. Layton’s humour, grace, and unfiltered realness in face of death inspire friends and strangers everyday, but the truth is, he’s terrified. His biggest concerns are leaving his wife, Candace, and their three-year-old son, Finn. Every day Layton works to make the intangible tangible, stuffing all he can of himself into a little wooden box for Finn to keep forever, hoping it will be enough to last a lifetime.
Julie, a mother of three young children with a penchant for cosplay tells it like it is, and one thing she’ll tell you is she doesn’t like the term “battle with cancer”; it implies that if you lose the battle you’ve failed. She prefers the word “conquered”. Julie conquers cancer every day. She has stage 4 breast cancer. It’s never going away. Some days she screams. Others she cries. Some days she can’t get out of bed. Others she draws, sculpts, plays, and laughs with her kids until her cheeks and sides ache. Some days she tries to embrace each moment, others she takes everything for granted. She’s dying, but she’s still human. She’ll be sick for the rest of her life, but she won’t stop hoping it will be a long one despite the odds.
We were all born. We will all die. Yet, most of us don’t dwell on the latter. Unfortunately, Layton and Julie don’t have that choice. Their stories are complex, compelling, raw and filled with both tears, and laughter. As a guest on their deeply personal journeys, Here Right Now , will awaken you to the understanding that life and death are intertwined and leave you with a better understanding of what it means to face your own mortality.