You Never Know Where You Will Meet A Hero

Picture of Matty Garcia and Jim Zarifis for the blog post "You Never Know Where You Will Meet A Hero"

Matty on Fill Ronalds Shoes poster

Matty Garcia is the man and is a great example of how “You Never Know Where You Will Meet A Hero”.

I had the privilege of meeting Matty at Camp Rising Sun in 2014. He was assigned to my cabin for the summers of 2014 and 2015 at CRS.

Being a counselor at CRS, I had known that like me, Matty had Medulloblastoma, a cancerous brain tumor. The Summer of 2015 is when I actually had a chance to sit and talk with him since he was very tired from the chemo and radiation in 2014.

From our talk we had found out from each other that we had many similarities with our diagnosis’. Matty went through 52 weeks of Chemo and 38 days of Radiation, which would make me…o wait, it did make me, tired as well. Could you imagine being tied to a table with your head being clamped in a mask and you can’t move..and now a few days into it you start chemo once a week?

Shortly after Matty’s 9th birthday he got his feeding tube..still doing chemo, missing school and seeing all your friends being able to run, that was the worst part of it for me too, the missing out on running around with your friends. Blood transfusions were scary at first, but sadly became the norm.  Matty went through all of this and much, much more and still came to camp. Speaking with me and sharing our stories has given this kid hope. Matty gives back and helps others by talking to them, he lets them feel the power of a child who knows.  His mom’s local friends contacted her to let her know of all the choices and options that the Garcia’s have to get help. Matty helps so much and truly lives life, he is proof that you never know where you will meet a hero. He lives the I Live Life ILL lifestyle. Seeing the little kid who was sooo skinny and thin last year bloom into the active kid he is, having fun, running around with friends was amazing to see. He did not let setbacks keep him back.

Keep on beating the odds Matty!

Matty at CRSMatty

 

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