Meet Wish Kid Matthew, Age 13, 2023

Matthew's favorite things are:

Horses, chickens, dogs, and cats. Matthew enjoys going camping and riding his bike. He has a horse named Buster and likes hunting. One day he’d like to hunt with Buster but they both need more practice for that. Like many 13-yr old’s, he enjoys playing videogames on his PlayStation. He spent a lot of time during the worst of his treatment building Legos and streaming videos on his iPad. We now have a whole Lego Star Wars collection.

Can you share about your medical journey?

Two years ago I felt horrible. We thought it was Covid-19. Mom eventually took me to the hospital. They did an x-ray and saw a mass, almost collapsing my lung and pushing on my heart. They transferred me by ambulance to the Children’s hospital where I stayed for two weeks. After stabilizing me, they started chemotherapy to shrink the tumor that we named Chad. During the next year, I was in and out of the hospital. I lost all of my hair and was mostly confined to my bed. Slowly things got better. So far the chemo has worked, and now I am effectively cancer-free. I should be done with the chemo in September this year.

Why did you choose your wish?

During the year where I was mostly confined to my home, the only thing I could do was lay down or build Legos and watch my phone. Most of my time was spent watching Gordon Ramsay scream and shout at his chefs, and it really perked me up. I think it’s really cool how he has focused his entire life on cooking and has helped many others achievetheir dreams of cooking through tough love.

What does a wish mean to you? 

I would like to meet Gordon Ramsay and thank him for all the laughsduring my treatment. He seems like a cool dude.