Two tennis-mad teenagers have had their wish granted to attend The Championships at Wimbledon – and they met Andy Murray too!
The UK Make-A-Wish Foundation hosted two children from overseas when tennis fans 17 year old Christine McLinn, from Wisconsin, USA and Thys Kroezen, aged 15 and from the Netherlands, had their life-time wish granted to come to England and see a tennis match at the world famous Wimbledon tournament.
Christine is fighting Hodgkin’s disease and has played tennis since she was six years old. She has an expert knowledge on anything to do with tennis and her favourite female player is Serena Williams. She has had to endure chemotherapy, but she surprised medical experts by managing to win a local tennis championship within a few weeks of receiving the treatment.
Thys is fighting Osteosarcoma, a type of bone cancer – but despite having to have his left arm amputated due to his illness, he is still a keen tennis player.
The pair and their families were treated to Centre Court seats all day, where they were able to see matches featuring Maria Sharapova vs Gisela Dulko, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez vs Roger Federer and Sam Querry vs Marin Cilic.
Then there was a big surprise in store for the two teenagers, as they were lucky enough to have a VIP meeting with the UK’s number one tennis player, Andy Murray. They chatted for around half an hour about tennis and then Andy – showing great kindness in spending time with Thys and Christine during the first week of Wimbledon, the premier tournament of the year – presented them with signed T-shirts and had photographs taken with them.
Christine’s mother Cynthia said of the wish: “It has been one of the most exciting days of our lives and particularly for Christine because tennis got her through chemotherapy, and that makes it all the more touching.”
Thys’s mother said: “It was a most fantastic day. Lots of nice unexpected things happened and Make-A-Wish in Holland and their British colleagues made our wish possible after a long and difficult year for our family. Now Thys can start his ‘normal’ life again next week.”
Source: Make-A-Wish UK
