Fertitta helps take ‘attend UFC’ off cancer patient’s bucket list
The number two item for Jake Stoneking, a tenneager dying of cancer, was to attend a UFC event. Lorenzo Fertitta has already taken steps to make it happen.
Yesterday ABC news ran a story about a teenager, who dying of cancer, created a ‘bucket list’ of things to do before he passed. The news story covered several of the items he had checked off the list, including visiting a topless bar and taking a helicopter ride.
Jake Stoneking’s bucket list seems quite reasonable. A hunting trip, a tattoo and a trip to the local topless bar: all doable in the 19-year-old’s hometown of West Linn, Ore.
“He put stuff on there that he knows can happen,” said Jake’s dad, Todd Stoneking. “We know the time’s coming. We know it’s coming. But he’s doing pretty good and we can still do a lot of things.”
Jake has medulloblastoma, a rare form of brain cancer. He was diagnosed at the age of 14 after a string of unbearable headaches.
“He had a tumor removed about the size of a golf ball,” Todd Stoneking said, recalling the 12-hour surgery in 2009 followed by months of radiation and chemo. “It pretty much took him down to nothing.”
In the video you can see the second item on his list was ‘go to a UFC fight’. The always astute Ariel Helwani tweeted out to see if the MMA community could help.
A 19-year-old who’s battling brain cancer put “go to a UFC fight” as #2 on his bucket list. Let’s get him to UFC 171! http://abcnews.go.com/Health/topless-bar-tops-bucket-list-teen-brain-cancer/story?id=22863094 …
The response was great, and co-owner of the UFC Lorenzo Fertitta responded and said that he was ‘in’ to help the boy cross the item off his list:
@arielhelwani @katiemoisse I’m in!
It really is a heart warming story and shows just how powerful social media can be. MMAFighting.com reported today that the UFC has reached out the teenager and offered to bring him to Dallas for this weekend’s UFC 171.