Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty
It all started last year when Oakland Raiders’ Tackle Menelik Watson made the news because he became friends with a little 4-year old girl with a rare heart condition.
Unfortunately, Ava Urrea was born with a hypoplastic left heart syndrome which is a congenital condition that is detected at birth.
The hypoplastic left heart syndrome means that the left side of the heart is underdeveloped and it means that the left side cannot effectively pump blood to the body. This would mean that the right side of the heart has to to distribute blood to the lungs and the rest of the body.
Menelik met Ava through the sports writer, Jay Glazer’s Touchdown Dreams program where Ava became the teams captain for a day on a Sunday where Ava was given autographed a helmet and football from the Raiders and she had lunch in the team’s meal room too.
The team fell in love with the little 4-year old and itt was during lunch when Menelik went in and surprised her family with a gift.
Menelik made the decision to donate one of his game day paychecks to Ava and her family… a check that was over $36,000. The money was said to help out their family out, they’ve been having treatments for Ava… medical bills.
Glazer said, “[The Raiders] went so far above and beyond. But there’s one player… and I’ve never heard a player do this before, named Menelik Watson. He walks over to Ava’s father and the other day and hands him his game check for the week. And he said, ‘Sir, I would like to make sure Ava has the greatest holiday. Here is my game check.’ All the bad things that we hear players do and all the negative publicity they get… there is so much good that these guys actually do.”
This special friendship didn’t end there… Menelik and Ava kept in touch and a couple of days ago, Menelik posted on IG about her too.
2dmenelikwatson71Got to see my hero, Ava Urrea 1 year later she is doing really well getting stronger and stronger by the day. She made me a picture. #Imhernumberonefan #fighter #cutie #bff
Hurt and all because Menelik had a raptured achilles tendon during a Sunday night pre season game.
Via:eonline.com
