Minn. Man Gives Super Bowl Tickets To Young Eagles Fan With Cancer
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- A young Eagles fan who beat cancer will get to see in person if his team can beat the Patriots at the Super Bowl--thanks to the kindness of a stranger.
Cole Fitzgerald, 13, found out on Monday that he would be attending the game after tickets were donated to him by a man from Minnesota.
The man won the tickets in a raffle but couldn't bring himself to attend.
"The person who won the tickets from the raffle said, 'I'm a die-hard Vikings fan. There's no way I can go to the Super Bowl,'" Spare Key Director of Development Mary Serie said.
Spare Key is an organization that helps families in crisis with ill children. After the Vikings lost the NFC Championship, an Eden Prairie, Minn. man called Spare Key and said he wanted to give his prized tickets away with a purpose.
"That's when he found Cole," Serie said.
Fitzgerald is an eighth grade cancer survivor from Philadelphia who battled neuroblastoma since he was 3. Because of his joint underdevelopment, the die-hard Eagles fan never played football. The Minnesotan found a story online about Fitzgerald managing his junior high football team and picked him to receive the tickets.
Serie flew out to Philadelphia over the weekend, and then gave Fitzgerald the biggest surprise of his life.
"No way," Fitzgerald said. "Oh my goodness, I know what it is."
The boy that has always been on the sidelines will be front and center on football's biggest night.
"I want to thank the fan," Fitzgerald said. "Sorry for your season. Good luck next year."
Fitzgerald will never know the man who gave him the tickets. But he will never forget the man's kindness.
This story was first told by WOOC CBS Minnesota.
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