Utah Teen Receives 'Dream Car', Ford Racing Trip

[ice-capades]

Utah Teen Receives 'Dream Car', Ford Racing Trip After Learning Rare Cancer Diagnosis Has Spread to His Lungs

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/utah-teen-receives-dream-car-ford-racing-trip-rare-cancer-diagnosis-spread-lungs

 

 

A teenager who is fighting a valiant battle against cancer has received a few gifts that have put a big smile on his face. 

 

Joseph Tegerdine, 18, of Springville, Utah, was diagnosed with osteosarcoma bone cancer in May 2019. 

 

At just 13 years old, Tegerdine’s knee pain, originally thought to be simple growing pains, turned out to be cancer. 

 

After completing chemotherapy, he had a rotatinplasty to treat the knee bone tumors, as SWNS reported.

 

 

But in January 2022, cancer was also found in his lungs and his hip.

 

Kerry Tegerdine, Tegerdine’s mother, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that her son had surgery and chemotherapy to treat the disease. 

 

In Feb. 2024, cancer was again found in his lungs — causing the family to begin completing some bucket list items for their now-18-year-old son.

 

"Joseph is gearing up for radiation to slow the growth, and we’re focusing on making memories and doing bucket list items for him," his mom said.

 

One of those bucket list items included owning a Ford Mustang — something Kerry Tegerdine told Fox News Digital that her husband, Joe Tegerdine, recently made happen.

 

 

"Joe knew that Joseph has always wanted a Mustang and wanted to work to buy it," she said.

 

"But we know that he doesn’t have the time to earn enough to buy it himself — so Joe went out and bought it."

 

The father wrote in a post on X, "For those wondering why I’d buy my 18yr old son a 330hp Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself. His comment on the way home: ‘Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.’ #cancersucks"

 

Kerry Tegerdine said her son’s reaction to the gift of the sports car was just amazing.

 

"Joseph said, ‘The Mustang is my dream car, and I feel freaking fantastic!’" she recalled to Fox News Digital.

 

She also told Fox News Digital that Ford Motors, specifically CEO Jim Farley, gifted Joseph Tegerdine a Mustang driving session at its performance racing school.

 

Ford North America communications director Mike Levine told Fox News Digital on Thursday that Farley reached out to Joe Tegerdine after seeing the tweet of his excited son with his Ford Mustang.

 

In a tweeted response, Farley shared his condolences for what the Tegerdines were going through — then offered Joe and Joseph Tegerdine the chance to drive a Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the track. 

 

That's something that's typically only offered to those who own the special-edition car. 

 

The pair, in April, will visit the performance racing school in Charlotte, North Carolina.

 

As of 2023, the Mustang was named the bestselling car in the world for eight years straight, according to S&P Global Mobility. 

 

Over a million Mustang vehicles were shipped to customers from 2013 through 2022, with the all-time tally of 10 million crossed in 2018. 

 

While the vehicle is exported to over 100 countries, the vast majority of sales are in the U.S.

 

The Tegerdine family recently traveled to Japan together. 

 

They continue to plan more bucket list experiences together for the near future.

 

In a follow-up post on X, dad Joe Tegerdine wrote, "My son also values his quality of life. He’d rather live the heck out of a few months, than be confined to a bed or wheelchair suffering for years."

 

Edited March 15 by ice-capades
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[akirby]

I’m not crying, you’re crying……

[DeluxeStang]

I saw this story in my local news cycle, really cool. 

[ice-capades]

Farley Reacts to Dad's Post About Son's Ford Mustang Story

https://fordauthority.com/2024/03/farley-reacts-to-dads-post-about-sons-ford-mustang-story/

 

 

Many of us know someone who has been impacted by cancer – and some of us have suffered from it ourselves – but it’s still rather disheartening to hear stories of younger folks, in particular, that are battling this terrible disease. However, in the automotive enthusiast world, folks are usually pretty quick to jump in and help make this awful experience a bit more manageable for those suffering from it, as we’ve seen time and time again. That was also the case recently when Joe Tegerdine purchased a 2020 Ford Mustang for his son, who is currently battling a particularly devastating bout with cancer.

 

“For those wondering why I’d buy my 18-year-old son a 330 horsepower Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself. His comment on the way home, ‘Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this,” Tegerdine wrote in a recent post to X.

 

As the younger Tegerdine explained to the Detroit Free Press in a corresponding interview, he’s always been a Ford Mustang fan, and has been saving up his money to buy one for some time. However, after battling osteosarcoma – a form of cancer – since the age of seven, doctors recently found more tumors in his lungs, meaning that he doesn’t seemingly have much longer to live. As one might imagine, Tegerdine’s post on X wound up attracting considerable attention as a result – including, it seems, a response from Ford CEO Jim Farley himself.

 

“Hi Joe, I’m so sorry to hear what your family is going through,” Farley said. “Please let me know if you and your son would like to attend the Ford Performance Racing School to experience a Ford Mustang Dark Horse on the track. DM me and we’ll make it happen.” The elder Tegerdine has already taken Farley up on that offer, meaning that his son will hopefully get to experience something he might have previously only dreamed about in the coming days or weeks.

Edited March 18 by ice-capades
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[ice-capades]

This is a story that pulls our heart strings but after thinking about it, I think Farley and Ford are getting off easy and just making a token gesture at little expense. Let this young man's dad sell the 2020 Mustang he bought for his son and replace it with a new 2024 Mustang compliments of Ford. Better yet, let the son spec out his "dream" Mustang, expedite scheduling and production and invite the son and his family to the Flat Rock plant to see his Mustang built and come off the assembly line. Then you'd see Ford get a much stronger story from the media and a lot more goodwill to benefit the company.   

[ice-capades]

Teen Mustang Owner Fighting Cancer, Gets Bad News

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/ford/2024/04/23/teen-mustang-owner-cancer-jim-farley-ford-charlotte-motor-speedway/73411364007/

 

Joseph Tegerdine had never been on a professional racetrack, let alone behind the wheel of a Ford Mustang Dark Horse actually rocketing 112 mph. He remained fearless even as his life continued to be dominated by sharp turns and tight corners.

 

"It was kind of terrifying at first. Then I was like, 'oh, this is actually pretty chill.' It's just really, really fun," Tegerdine, 18, of Springville, Utah, told the Free Press. "There’s so much to be thinking about in this car that your brain is 100% occupied — a little more gas, hit the brake hard, turn, turn. It’s just surreal."

 

He mentioned the Oscar-winning film "Ford v Ferrari" and asked, "You know that famous line?" — referring to the part where legendary racing driver Carroll Shelby says, "There's a point at 7,000 rpm ... where everything fades. The machine becomes weightless."

 

Tegerdine said, "It was 100% that feeling. Everything fades and you're floating."

 

 

Why a racetrack in Charlotte

The young man traveled earlier this month from Utah to North Carolina with his father, Joe Tegerdine. (Father and son have the same name. For clarity, we'll refer to the father as Joe and his son as Joseph).

Ford CEO Jim Farley offered the two a trip to the Ford Performance Racing School at the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway. The auto executive, himself a competitive race car driver whose first car was a Mustang, wanted Joseph to experience the untethered thrill of a Mustang on the track. Farley had read on social media that Joe Tegerdine bought his son a 2020 Mustang because the teen's bone cancer was moving too quickly to not grant all wishes immediately.

 

"For those wondering why I’d buy my 18yr old son a 330hp Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself," Tegerdine tweeted on X. "His comment on the way home, 'Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.' ”

 

More than 13.8 million people read the post, and nearly 200,000 have commented, shared, liked or bookmarked it.

 

 

Dad, the general manager of North America for Reencle home composting systems, has heard from people who survived cancer, who lost children, who urge the family to remain strong.

 

"There's so much social upheaval and so many people are hurting right now ... to be able to have literally thousands of people reach out, you just realize most of us are just good people doing our best to try and live a fulfilling life," Joe said.

 

"We get caught in this doom cycle," he said. "I attribute a lot to politics and politicians trying to divide us and focus on negative and dark things to maintain power and generate wealth for themselves. The rest of us get caught in these cycles. To be able to step out and see the goodness of humanity and people is super inspiring to me. It reminds me that, for most of us, that’s our reality."

 

Feel yourself airborne

When Farley offered the trip in a private message to Joe, the father-son duo accepted immediately. Other Mustang owners were at the track that day, too. Ford put the father and son, with custom helmets, in their cars to create unique drive experiences they would share later.

 

"We had a drifting course," that taught how to make controlled skids sideways through turns, and smoked the tires, Joe said. "After driving, we did a timed skills course with cones and instruction with professional drivers. That was really cool. In the afternoon, we headed to the main track, where we had a pace driver, and three cars would follow. It was Joseph and I and another car. We hauled butt behind the professional driver. I think I got up to 115 miles per hour on the side wall."

 

But that wasn't all.

 

"In the end, we got to ride with a professional driver and it was like, I mean, G-forces after G-forces. You could feel yourself airborne in the seat. You come through a turn and you feel all the pressure in the turn and as soon as they hit the throttle out of the turn, you're pinned to the sat," Joe said. "Joseph was so excited. I had not seen him have that much energy for months."

 

They attended a dinner hosted by the racing school on April 11, the night before heading to the track. Joseph ran into Laurie Transou, chief engineer of the Mustang program, and talked design and engineering. (Last year, Transou encouraged young adults to take their moms to the racetrack for Mother's Day instead of brunch.)

 

 

Proximity to Transou was coincidence, Ford said. She had scheduled months in advance attending the program. Joseph once wanted to be an engineer — before his classes were replaced with medical treatments and surgeries.

 

"Normally, you'd have conversations about, 'when you’re an engineer,' or 'you could come back and do the two- or three-day course,'" Joe said. "But then you realize this is probably it. So you’re very much in the now. And embracing that moment together because there’s a recognition of the finality of it. You know there’s not going to be probably a next time. So we just try to enjoy those moments together."

 

Farley told the Free Press in a statement, “I’m just pleased we were able to help Joe and Joseph enjoy a very special day. It was an honor for our team to host them in Charlotte.” 

 

It was a great time for a kid who has always loved speed, Joe said. Joseph used to ride like lightning on a motorbike at their old Texas cattle ranch. In eighth grade, a sore knee led to the cancer diagnosis for Joseph, who played football and ran track. When driving the Mustang, he drives with a prosthetic right leg now. Cancer required amputation.

 

Still, never feeling like an invincible teenager

This past weekend, Joseph took his girlfriend, Lily Flake, to her prom at Mapleton High School.

 

"It's fun to be a little teenager for a bit," he said. "I’m technically a teenager, but I’m not really a teenager. Teenagers think they’re invincible. They have the ability to go do stupid things and they don’t think of the consequences. 'Yes, we’re going to load 10 people onto a golf cart and go zooming around town, no problem.' But at age 13, I had to come to the reality that I’m very much vincible and I'm going to die. I never really got that whole 'invincible teenager who can do whatever and it’ll be fine' feeling."

 

Joseph said, "But it’s nice sometimes to remember, it sounds dumb because I'm only 18, but it's nice to remember to stay young sometimes. My girlfriend helps with that. She loves fun things."

 

Asked how he's doing this week, he said, "I don’t really know. It's kind of just confusing, I guess. There’s just a lot of a lot. So I don’t know exactly how I’m doing. You just kind of go through every day and take it day by day."

 

Life can be a blur, like an Eras Tour experience

After nearly two weeks, the trip going to Charlotte feels like a blur, Joseph said. He compared it to what he called "a Taylor Swift phenomenon." He explained that people go to her concert and don't remember details. "I don't know if you've ever heard this. You're just on this adrenaline high for, like, four straight hours. When you walk out, everything kind of settles and like, whoa, that just happened. But you can't really remember what actually happened. Everything is kind of hazy. You remember the feelings associated but you couldn't put, like, words to what you were feeling at the moment."

 

In August 2023, he attended an Eras Tour concert with his girlfriend at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.

 

These adventures are intentional. For Joseph, everything in life has to be about right now, his father said.

 

 

"You just have to make a choice. You can either get depressed and life is over and 'poor me' or whatever or just accept the fact that this is what life is, and we're all going to die at some point and we all have to reconcile that," Joe said. "You never want your children go before you, but millions of people before me had to deal with it and millions will after me. ... I have a strong faith in the afterlife. I don’t look at death — I don’t see it as the finality that sometimes I think we’re prone to. To me, it's like a transition. It’s the next adventure. But it's going to be hard to say goodbye."

 

Finding a glimmer of comfort in shocking loss

Doctors delivered really bad news last week, Joe said. Scans came back, and Joseph has tumors going up through his hip and down into his leg. His osteosarcoma has become worse than doctors feared. A life measured in years is now measured in months.

 

For a few minutes, Joe stopped talking. And he just cried.

 

"His favorite uncle passed away" Sunday, Joe said.

 

Joseph saw his Uncle Jerry just a few weeks ago, and nothing seemed wrong, Joe said. Then the man went to the hospital a few days ago with pain and the doctors discovered necrosis of the small intestine after having his colon removed awhile ago, Joe said. Doctors went in to try to fix the issue and couldn't. He died.

 

That was the family member who called and texted and sent pick-me-up gifts and provided a constant presence to Joseph through the child's cancer journey over the past five years.

 

 

"Joseph’s only fear of death is being alone on the other side," Joe said. "We want to be greeted by our parents and brothers and sisters. So, to me, knowing that his uncle will be on the other side waiting for him, to me, is, um, just a tender mercy. Because I’m not going to be there to be on the other side with him."

 

 

Edited April 25 by ice-capades
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