SAN FRANCISCO — Two hours before he and his teammates would tangle with the formidable Green Bay Packers, linebacker Patrick Willis took a couple minutes to chat with a young Richmond man who also knows something about fighting the good fight.
“You ready to watch some football?” Willis asked 22-year-old Felix Vargas, who has been battling cancer since he was 17.
“Yes,” replied Vargas, who watched pregame warm-ups from a wheelchair along the sideline.
“All right,” Willis said. “Let’s get a picture.”
Vargas, a lifelong 49ers fan, attended Saturday night’s playoff game courtesy of the 49ers and the Santa Barbara-based Dream Foundation, which grants wishes to adults facing life-threatening illnesses. Diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer, as a teenager, Vargas also was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer. Recently he has been undergoing treatment every Monday in three-week cycles.
In keeping with head coach Jim Harbaugh’s tradition of finding inspirational people to visit his team, the 49ers entertained cancer patient Felix Vargas on Thursday at the team facility.
The life-long 49ers fan, Richmond resident Vargas, 22, contracted a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing’s Sarcoma five years ago, and recently received a diagnosis of lung cancer. Vargas applied to the Dream Foundation, an organization that attempts to grant wishes to adults and their families suffering from life-threatening illness.
Vargas paid a visit to his favorite team Thursday and had his Vernon Davis jersey signed by Davis, Frank Gore, Aldon Smith, Colin Kaepernick and Patrick Willis. He also lunched with Harbaugh and broke the team down in a huddle after practice.
I have only been handicapped for the last two of my 54 years.
As my degenerative neuron disease of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) marches relentlessly forward, I’ve had to be a quick study in wheelchair restrictions and regulations. Blah! After a recent journey to California, though, I came back with an attitude: These wheels rock!
I received the trip through the Dream Foundation, a nonprofit organization that grants wishes for adults with life-limiting illnesses. My desire was to watch a taping of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Her saucy optimism and humor is the perfect medicine for me.
My nurse-friend Stacie and friend Vicky began the process in April. After a flurry of paperwork, phone calls and months of waiting, my dream began to unfurl. We traveled to Cleveland, where I had to relinquish my wheelchair and attached computer — my arms, legs and voice. I can no longer speak after undergoing a tracheostomy in January. I communicate solely through my computer, where the cursor is moved by my eyes.
My wheelchair, worth a small car, was chucked beneath the plane while I was wheeled on with a chair designed to fit the narrow plane aisles. I silently blessed my 100-pound frame as airplane employees strapped me on to a seat barely a foot wide.