Friends band together to fight disease

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SAVANNAH, GA (WTOC) - Imagine being diagnosed with a fatal disease and on top of that, being confined to your home. Well it's not something Darius Weems has to imagine, he lived it until now.

A few years ago he and group of friends who he met at Project Start, a camp designed for those suffering sever illnesses, decided enough was enough. They banded together, made a documentary about Weem's life suffering from Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy and took it cross country. The guys traveled over 7,000 miles while making "Darius Goes West".

Since the film's release, it has won 28 awards and raised over $1 million to help spread awareness about Darius' fatal disease which is the number one genetic killer of young boys under the age of 25.

Today they are in Savannah hoping to have the same response they have in other cities to their movie.

"People, when they come, they might come and they might think it's sad, but it's not. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It gets you," Weems said of the film.

A majority of the movie is focusing on Weem's trying to gain the attention of the popular MTV show "Pimp my Ride." The show focuses on going out and finding cars in bad conditions and making them over. Weems wants his wheel chair customized.

Director of the documentary, Logan Smalley says, "That's kind of the whimsical side of things, the real goal was to raise awareness for Duchennes Muscular Dystrophy and have a lot of fun doing it."

Weems said we would have to watch the movie to see if MTV agreed to customize his wheelchair.

"Darius Goes West" is playing tomorrow night at 7:30pm at the Savannah Civic Center.