Local teen Jake McLeod and his family will be getting the VIP treatment at the Grey Cup this weekend in Vancouver, thanks to Mark's Work Wearhouse and the CFL.
McLeod, 15, suffers from a rare form of cancer called desmoid tumours - or aggressive fibromatosis - that has caused large, rapid-growing tumours to form in his right calf and behind his knee. But despite his challenges, the Grade 10 student played as an offensive/defensive lineman on the undefeated Duchess Park Condors junior football team up until the end of the P.G. Bowl.
"It's, it's energetic, it's fast. When I started playing, it really caught my eye," McLeod said. "I enjoy the defence because I can break through the line. I can help put the pressure on...[But] offence is the biggest part of the game, because you are the one who decides if the quarterback can throw the ball and get the run off."
When McLeod's mom, Carrie McLeod, saw a contest on Mark's Work Wearhouse's Facebook page offering two tickets to the Grey Cup, she put McLeod's name in and explained why he deserved a chance to win.
"Jake got to play, but he had to cut his season short because of treatment. When you have a tumour this big [holding her hand in baseball-size circle], it's hard to play football," Carrie McLeod said. "The goal is to keep his leg right now. He'll never not have these [tumours]. For the rest of however many years, until we have a cure, Jacob will be doing chemo and radiation."
The McLeods didn't win the contest. Instead, Mark's partnered with the CFL to offer his whole family an expenses-paid trip to Vancouver to take in the game.
And they won't just be sitting in the stands, either, according to information released by Mark's Work Wearhouse.
The company and the CFL will fly the family of four down for the weekend, put them up in a hotel and give them a behind-the-scenes tour of B.C. Place Stadium. In addition they will be on the sidelines during the warm up, get to take in the halftime concert by Imagine Dragons on the field and attend a meet-and-greet with Toronto Argonauts legend Michael 'Pinball' Clemons and former B.C. quarterback Damon Allen, and get the full VIP treatment.
"I am definitely excited about it. It's not every day you get to go to the Grey Cup," McLeod said. "This will be a very exciting experience, especially to meet some of the players. This is a huge opportunity that most people don't get."
He's also looking forward to the Imagine Dragons concert, he added.
Carrie McLeod said their family has been challenged since Jake's diagnosis in February, but "the goal is to keep everything as normal as we can, despite the abnormal."
According to the Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation in the U.S., the condition is very rare - effecting only two to four people per million. McLeod is only the fifth child to be diagnosed at B.C.'s Children's Hospital in the hospital's history.
While Desmoid tumours don't metastasize - spread from one part of the body to another - like other cancers, they can grow very rapidly and cause serious health complications.
"This, for us, is everything right now," Carrie McLeod said. "To have one day of pure fun... it's just wonderful. "
