Just in time for the Super Bowl: A sweet story out of Lucile Packard Children's Hospital about a special visit for 18-year old patient/football fan Alex Walter. As writer Samantha Dorman describes on the hospital's Healthier, Happier Lives Blog:
Last week, as Super Bowl 50 excitement grew, we learned that Alex's dream was to meet his beloved Denver Broncos, who would be practicing just down the street at Stanford University. On Monday, we posted this to our Facebook page. The goal was to catch the Broncos’ eye. Thousands of fans liked and shared the post, tagging Peyton Manning, the Broncos, local reporters, and anyone else to help spread the word.
By the next morning we made contact with Vernon Davis, former 49er and now Super Bowl-contending Broncos tight-end. The photo also caught the attention of Bay Area news outlets, including KTVU’s (Fox 2) Rob Roth and NBC Bay Area, who called the hospital wanting to talk to Alex. Staff and the hospital school devised a plan to surprise Alex, telling him that two TV stations were going to interview him about wanting to meet a Bronco. And during the interview Vernon Davis would walk in and give Alex the surprise of a lifetime!
It all worked according to plan. Check out our behind-the-scenes video of the surprise.
As outlined in the post, Walters received a heart transplant at Packard Children's when he was 11 and is now being treated for rhabdomyosarcoma, a soft tissue cancer. The treatments leave him with little energy, but he is, according to his mom, “relentlessly positive."
