WATCH Video: Atiba Harris provides goodwill gesture to cancer survivor
By: Jermine Abel, SKNVibes.com,
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THERE is more to footballers than what is seen on the field of play, and this fact was recently demonstrated by St. Kitts and Nevis’ international defender Atiba Harris.
Back in March, Harris surprised a family in the United States of America with season tickets to attend all of FC Dallas’ home games; the team with which he plies his trade.
According to an article published on FCDallas.com, Harris, the poster boy for football in St. Kitts and Nevis, surprised the Perez family with the ticket after learning of their difficult story.
In April 2015, the family had planned to purchase season tickets to the Dallas games and had paid a deposit on them, but Tom and Jenny Perez had gotten some devastating news.
Jenny was diagnosed with breast cancer and shortly after began taking chemotherapy.
Instead of making payments for the tickets, the Perez had to channel their resources to battle the life-threatening illness.
The website quoted Jenny as saying, “Realistically, it just wasn’t in the cards, not just financially but physically to put myself in those situations.”
However, after hearing the story, Harris took the friendly and humane route to purchase the season 2016 tickets for the entire family – Jenny, her husband Tom and daughters Abigail and Mia.
“Just to see someone having to battle cancer; that’s tough enough,” Harris said.
He was impressed by the way the family has overcome the adversity and stayed strong regardless of their financial situation.
Harris surprised the family with their tickets back in March before the Major League Soccer season kicked off, and since then the family had reportedly attended a number of games.
A stunned Tom thanked the 31-year-old footballer for the kind gesture which he indicated would allow the family to share the moments together.
“There is really no words. You don’t really expect someone you don’t know to all of a sudden come and present you with such a valuable gift, something that’s not monetary but something that we can share together without girls.”
Harris thanked God for giving the family many more days that they can share together.
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