By Jan Carlo Anolin
A Canadian teen diagnosed with a rare form of cancer fulfilled his ‘dying wish’ after meeting idol and NBA star LeBron James on Christmas Day.
17-year-old Corey Groves was diagnosed with stage four sarcoma cancer this year, ESPN’s Dave McMenamin tweeted Thursday.
This is 17-year-old Corey Groves. He was diagnosed with stage four sarcoma cancer this year. As a lifelong Lakers fan living in Canada, his dying dream was to come to Staples Center and meet LeBron James. Well, that happened today for Corey at the team’s walk through. Tremendous pic.twitter.com/yJf8OYjQ8e
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) December 25, 2019
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“As a lifelong Lakers fan living in Canada, his dying dream was to come to Staples Center and meet LeBron James. Well, that happened today (Wednesday) for Corey at the team’s walk through. Tremendous,” the tweet added.
Despite enduring the illness and the knowledge that he has less than a year to live, it was still a merry Christmas for Groves who was all smiles having met James.
Grove savored the time to shake hands and pose for a photo with James at the bleachers before the Lakers faced off with the Clippers.
I got my wish .so thankful to everyone that helped make this happen “I got my wish,” Groves wrote on Instagram Thursday. “So thankful to everyone that helped make this happen.”
Behind the scenes, Nav Bhatia is the man to thank for. The Toronto Raptors superfan lent a helping hand and assured that Groves and James will meet soon, as reported by CTV.
Bhatia founded the Superfan Foundation in 2018 in a bid to help unite the people and youth of Canada with sports.
According to a gofundme fundraiser created by Sherry Williams, a friend of Groves’ mother, the survival rate for patients with the illness is 15%.
Groves, against the odds, says “he’s not afraid to die.”
“He (Corey) has allowed for the doctors/teams to guinea pig him taking both good and bad cells, lots of blood samples and several tests in order for them to find a treatment for this exact cancer that so little is known about,” Williams wrote, adding that Corey hopes to help the next person to fall victim with the illness.
Sarcoma is a type of cancer that starts in tissues such as in bones or muscles.
Soft tissue sarcomas, meanwhile, can “develop in soft tissues like fat, muscle, nerves, fibrous tissues, blood vessels, or deep skin tissues,” the American Cancer Society wrote on its website.
Source: Manila Bulletin
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