Strangers' kindness helps fan with cancer see Final Four
HOUSTON (WTVD) -- Colin Hopper has been a basketball fan for as long as he can remember.
He has been playing the sport since he was a kid.
"I was mostly a forward. I had a pretty good outside shot," he said.
So, Colin was thrilled when he found out he and his fiancée, Cindy, were getting a chance to go to the NCAA championship game in Houston thanks to the generosity of a Chapel Hill couple who skipped the Final Four and decided to donate the tickets to two cancer patients.
Colin was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma seven years ago and given just six months to live.
"It really is an honor because not very many people actually get to step foot on that court," Colin said. "Being able to give people something positive to remember during a hard time is very few and far between."
Colin connected with the family through Dan's House of Hope, a Houston-based non-profit that helps young adults battling cancer, and the Fill Your Bucket List Foundation, based in Chapel Hill.
The family, who wants to remain anonymous, donated another pair of tickets to Mark Horn, who attended the Final Four Saturday night.
"I can't say enough about what they did," Colin said.
Colin, who is preparing for his second stem-cell transplant at the end of the month, is pulling for the team that is fighting the odds, just like him.
"Tonight we'll be rooting for the underdog, Villanova," he said with a smile.
Colin will be right in the middle of the action inside NRG Stadium on basketball's biggest night thanks to the kindness of strangers.
"I can imagine this place will be shaking, loud, it might even hit a magnitude on the earthquake scale," he said.
Fill Your Bucket List is hosting a fundraiser April 23rd at the Chef's Academy in Morrisville.
To learn more about the organization click here.
To learn about Dan's House of Hope, click here.
