Sacramento Teen Cancer Survivor Plays With Sac Republic, Scores Goal [VIDEO]
By DAVID on October 15, 2018
This is an amazing story, and certainly a moment that he will absolutely never forget. Matthew Harding is a teen cancer survivor, and he got to play soccer with the Sac Republic.
Matthew had a rare cancer, Langerhans-cell histiocytosis. He had a mass removed from behind his eye, and then spent a year in chemotherapy. Matthew also loves soccer, and his favorite team is of course, Sac Republic FC. When the Make-A-Wish Foundation heard about everything he had been through, they decided to get involved. Matthew made a with to become a pro soccer player, and Make-A-Wish sort of helped that to happen. They got in touch with Sacramento Republic FC and organized everything. Before he knew it, Matthew had some guests in his hospital room.
Surrounded by players from Sac Republic FC, staff from the team, and many of the nurses and doctors who cared for him, he actually signed a player contract with the team. They gave him a jersey with his name and number, and even held a press conference. Ben Gumpert was there, he’s the Sacramento Republic FC president and COO. Todd Dunivant was there too, and of course he’s the general manager of Sacramento Republic FC. They had Matthew come practice with them on Thursday, and then he actually participated in the game against Las Vegas on Saturday. He scored a goal, too, right there at Papa Murphy’s park!
