Washington – their unbearable friendship began under harsh conditions.
Nitin Ramashandran, a 13-year-old boy fighting brain cancer, asked Make-A-Wish in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean to achieve one of his dreams: he wanted to meet Washington and Wizards players.
Ted Lionisis, the main owner of the team, sports and entertainment, felt that he had to give this desire. Looking at the severity of the Nitite disease, Lenes knew that he could not guarantee a happy result of two niches and his family. But Lionis believed that he and his employees could help on that day – March 27, 2015 – one of the best nitty life.
Pull the processors all stations. Team officials signed a festive contract. He invited him to attend fire in the morning. Point goalkeeper John Wall and Marsen Ghurat Center spent parts of their day with him. When Game Night’s game against Charlotte Hornets, Nitin joined Wizards players while running to the field at Capital One Arena. The public address broadcaster until two intentions as a member of the beginning of the processors. When the game ended, Wizardz won 110-107 in the double time, he sat with coach Randy Whitman during the afternoon press conference.
That day remains a memory of the Ramashandran family, but this now means much more. After a decade, nitin was a child of his manufacture, and he is now an adult with good health and flourishing. Surgery, radiation treatments and chemotherapy months saved the lives of Nitaen, but his visit, which was returning to his emotional recovery.
“I can refer to a lot of small turning points on my trip, as it is the biggest points in that certain, which is a very large turning point in this crazy, long (ordeal), what I felt years of treatments.” Athlete. “This was definitely the turning point.”
The owner of the treatments Ted Lionis and then General Manager Erney Gunfield signs two Ramashrandran nodes in a festive contract in 2015. (NED Dishman / Getty Images)
Two times this season-during a match in mid-February against San Antonio Spears and a match on April 3 against Orlando Magic-returned Nitin to Arena Kirshan as a guest of Long. Watch Nitin and Lionnisse these games together from the same stadium seats, where he watched the two matchs that were made 10 years ago. After the match against Spears, Lionnis Nitin came to the handling striker Anthony Jill, Wizardes Brian Kevin, General Manager Will Will Dukens and Spears Kris Paul.
In the match he attended last week, Nitin wore a pair of jeans, white sports shoes and the Bilabaly Wizards shirt on Hodi Gray. Its cancer is something of the past.
“He kicked her.” Lionis said.
Before the diagnosis of two niches in 2014 with a tumor of the sperm – a malignant brain tumor that often affects children – was a prominent tennis player who was aspiring to exercise in the college.
During the next year, he had a strong and loving support group around him, led by his father, Ram Ramashandran; His mother, Gyoty Raghavan; And his older brother, Najil.
But cancer treatments caused great losses, making it difficult to feed itself and difficult to walk. He stated that in the middle of chemotherapy treatments, he was sick two or three times every day. “It was a time when I really needed a kind of light, or a kind of hope, to bring me,” Nitin recalls.
When his family received a word that the treatments would give his desire, she felt as if it were a snapshot. Knowing that he will meet soon, his idol, Wall, gave him an additional incentive to try to walk for five minutes every day; After all, remember that he does not want to embarrass himself on the field when he was meeting young people like Wall, Geratat, Paul Peres and Bradley Bell.
Now, after a decade, he remembers all the details of his visit, It was also listed in a video. Goretat, a 6 -foot high -long center, received it at an entrance outside the Wizardes C w wardon. “So, how are you? I am practicing,” said Gawrat, his hand extends to a handshake. “… you have to eat something really fast. You cannot train without eating, well?”
Grees of Nitin came to the wall in the players hall.
Sometimes, the 13 -year -old she seemed to lose words, and told Wall, “You are a legend I watch on TV every day.”
“I) I am trying to be like you,” Wall replied.
Even the processors gave their own wardrobe, between the stalls occupied by Otto Porter Junior and Nenê.
Perhaps the most distinctive moments-the moment when the 23-year-old Nettin recognizes is now a major turning point-that occurred that night, when Wizards players ran to the stadium in front of the national anthem. While the players ran carefully around him, be sure not to hit him, he took Nenê and Gortat Nitin gently on the back of his shoulders, which led him to join the rest of the team, and then ran in the past.
Nights could not run, but he somehow managed to maneuver forward and not to lose his balance. It was a remarkable achievement due to his illness for several months and months, and this achievement continued to inspire him during the months and years after that, as he worked, as he put it, a normal child again.
“I haven’t run in a year … since I was diagnosed,” Nitin recalled. “I lost all my strength to run or barely walk. This was the first day in a year or so until I managed to mix my feet forward.”
And look at what extent has arrived since then. Last year, on the tenth anniversary of his original diagnosis, he ran 10 miles during the exercise. A few weeks ago, on the eleventh anniversary, he ran 11 miles. He is now training to manage this autumn marathon.
Nitin said he was satisfied, but he must be awake. He said he had to undergo MRI annually to ensure that cancer is no longer. Doctors visit to ensure that everything remains stable, including his eyes, ears and skin. He has checks in the long -term cancer survivors clinic. And because his radiological treatments affected his hearing, he wears hearing devices.
On April 3, about 30 minutes before Tebov, nitain sat on a leather sofa next to Lionisis in the owner’s dining area, and narrated the story of Nin de and Geirtat to move forward-and also about his progress, on how he is now running half of the marathon.
Lionis, 68, and two, remained in contact over the years, and they are often via email.
Lionis graduated from Georgetown University. Nitin graduated from Georgetown in 2023. Lionis worked on technology companies during the early stages of his career. Nitin is now working as a software engineer called YEXT.
Long also listened to two intentions, smiled.
“I do not consider him a sick little child,” said Lionis. “He is two nies, and he is a young colleague and made us proud.”
He made Nitin everyone partially proud because he is now trying to move forward with the influence of others (including Make-A-Wish and Wizards). He volunteers in the Make-A-Wish and the National Association of Tumor in the brain, and tells his story to raise awareness and teach people about the strength of healing from kindness.
He said: “When I see these organizations and their impact on me, you adhere to me that if I am in the place and health enough to return the favor, this is not a question, and I feel that I owe these organizations to do anything I can to return the favor.” “Because all I want to do is the struggle for the other children I know what they have gone.”
(The upper image of Ted Lion and Nentene Ramashandran: Stephen Gosling / Compliment from Washington and Wizards)
