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BOSTON – The opportunity to go to a Super Bowl seems out of reach, but thanks to an unlikely donor, a Beverly man and his wife are going. Unfortunately, the trip is coming at a challenging time for this couple. “To be able to take all of this stuff, we’re going through and actually make it positive,” Jeremy Smallwood explained. “It’s really nice.” Smallwood has Stage 4 lung cancer. So he’s been cherishing the opportunity to see smiles on his loved ones faces, instead of anguish. “When we first came in here, we were very not good; I mean it was a bad situation,” he said. “Especially when you hear stage four.” And it has been an intense fight. “Almost dying at the beginning of my treatment. I went through anaphylactic shock,” said Smallwood. He recently participated in a “lung cancer survivors Super Bowl challenge” with the Chris Draft Family Foundation. Thankfully, Draft, a former Falcons player, was okay with presenting the award to a Patriots fan. The contest raises money for lung cancer public awareness and research. Draft started the foundation after his own wife passed away from lung cancer. “We’ve been able to send a message to cancer and send a message from a group that knows about winning,” he said. Smallwood, his family and the team at Lahey Medical Center in Peabody, where he’s being treated, raised $15,000. Enough to win Smallwood and his wife a trip to the Super Bowl to see their beloved Patriots play. They got to hold the tickets in their hand Tuesday. His team of doctors and nurses at Lahey also surprised him with some spending money for the trip. Smallwood is also from Texas, so he’s excited to go back and show his wife around. Eighty percent of the money Smallwood and his team raised will go back to the Lahey clinic in a fund in his name. |
Awareness • Early Detection • Treatment • Research • Survivorship