“This is amazing; are you serious?” Matt recounted the conversation when he was told his wish was coming true. Now 37, two-time cancer survivor and wish alum Matt from Springfield, VA, reflects on how his medical journey and wish experience continues to shape his life nearly twenty years later.

In early 1997 at the age of 11, Matt started to experience a swollen neck, causing him to have difficulty swallowing. After a quick visit to his primary care physician, he was diagnosed with strep throat. As the antibiotics kicked in, his lymph nodes remained swollen and his medical team went back to the drawing board. After another round of antibiotics to treat the strep infection, his doctor ordered a CAT scan and a biopsy. Within weeks, a specialist confirmed it was a cancer diagnosis.

Matt had weekly chemotherapy treatments, followed by a spinal tap every three weeks and bone marrow checks every six weeks until remission. Through it all, Matt and his family tried to keep life as normal as possible. He focused on school and as he regained his strength, Matt returned to playing the sports he loved. About two years later, Matt noticed he was feeling more tired than usual. He returned to checking his lymph nodes and realized there was a persistent nodule that had appeared over time.

His cancer returned but now it was a leukemia diagnosis. The doctors believed that his first battle was underdiagnosed and undertreated since they caught the cancer early. This time, it returned with a vengeance. “I remember it as already knowing I had cancer [again] before anybody told me. When I saw my doctor, I said, ‘let’s go, put it in my veins, let’s do this’.” His doctor was taken aback as none of her patients had responded to a diagnosis in that way. “I just wanted to get it over with. I knew what I was in for,” he said.

The second time around, at the end of his freshman year of high school in 2000, Matt experienced  serious side effects to his treatments. The medications and treatment plans included a more intense regimen, causing him to lose his hair and feel lethargic and nauseous most days.

While his social life wasn’t impacted during his first bout of cancer, the next time was more isolating. “I was going to miss too much school, so I was homeschooled that year. I noticed as I went back junior year that people who were my friends would talk to me, but not befriend me. It was very different. I think high school is a tough time to go through something like that because I don’t think the other kids knew how to engage with me. I felt left out from a lot of things.”

“With all those complications, I started getting really down and depressed,” Matt recalled. His brother-in-law visited him at the hospital and commented, “wow, Matt, you look terrible.” While that may not seem like a welcoming statement, Matt greatly appreciated the honesty. “He was the first person who treated me normally. It wasn’t sympathy and it was nice to still feel like I could be treated like anybody else. That’s one of the things that I carry with me towards my patients now – they just want to be treated as a human,” Matt said.

At the end of his second chemo cycle, Matt was approached by Make-A-Wish Mid-Atlantic. Initially, he was confused as he did not think he qualified for a wish, but his wish granters explained that he could determine his one true wish. His excitement grew with every day – what would be his one true wish? Mountain Dew was one of his favorite drinks (and remains so to this day) and he often saw the commercials on TV. When he initially thought of the idea to be in a Mountain Dew commercial, he thought there was no way that wish would ever come true. Nevertheless, the wish granting team got to work.

In January 2004 as he was starting his second semester of college, his dad called with fantastic news. “I just talked to Make-A-Wish,” he told him. “You have to take off this week in February because we’re going to fly to Los Angeles and you’re going to be in a Mountain Dew commercial.” After sharing the news with his professors, friends and classmates, Matt and his family jetted off to the west coast for an unforgettable couple of days.

When he arrived on set at the University of Southern California campus, he immediately noticed a group of trailers set up for the actors – including one with his name on it. The VIP treatment didn’t end there. Matt met with the director, took test scenes with the wardrobe department and even got to hang out with celebrities Allan Cooke and Shaun White. Together, the trio shot two scenes – one where they were ‘Dew University’ students collecting their necessary materials (which in this case, was Mountain Dew) and another in front of the Dew U logo. When the commercial premiered, Matt noticed he was featured on the back of the coin flip in the final scene.

Once filming wrapped, the producers took him into a props room where all the promotional items were stored and told him he could choose any three items he wanted to take home. “I chose a Mountain Dew Santa Cruz Snowboard, a Mountain Dew Powell Skateboard and a Mountain Dew limited-edition Xbox. I still have all three of those items,” he said. He was especially excited about the full-circle moment with the new Xbox since some of his happiest memories in the hospital came from playing with one.

“Every time the commercial came on, I would tell everyone around me to be quiet because I wanted to watch it. I just wanted to watch it and say, ‘hey, that’s me’ and it was so satisfying,” he said.

As he recounted his medical journey, Matt said, “I don’t feel special or extra strong; I just did what I had to do and I lived. I don’t know what my life would have been like if I didn’t go through chemotherapies. I don’t see my life as different from anybody else’s. Everybody has struggles. Mine just happened to be cancer.”

Of all the incredible experiences, Matt cherished the quality time with his family the most. He remembers not feeling territorial about his wish, but instead, felt so grateful for the opportunity to  share in the joy with his siblings and parents. “I can’t believe I got to do this,” he recalled. “Make-A-Wish or cancer doesn’t just change the person that made the wish. It can change everybody that’s involved.”

Now years later, Matt and two of his five siblings work as nurses. After working in the hospital he where he was treated, Matt became an EMT and most recently, graduated with his masters from University of Maryland. He is now a nurse at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and loves his job in patient care. “The hospital feels like my home and I just want people to feel as comfortable as I do. If you make them feel like their voice is heard and that their needs are a priority, people respond so well to that. If you can become more personable, they can relate to you so they don’t just feel like another body. I’ve told my story to so many of my patients, just to help bridge that connection. I say, ‘I truly don’t understand what you are going through, but I’ve been through something similar. I don’t want you to feel like we are forgetting about you. We are doing what we can to help you and address your pain. I don’t want you to feel alone here’.” Matt shared the importance of empathy as it comes more naturally to him “because of [his] experiences” than to most people.

Matt would like to encourage other wish kids to pick something meaningful and wish without limitations. “Don’t sell yourself short on your wish, even if it seems far-fetched or outlandish; it’s your wish. Make it yours.”