Three uplifting stories to inspire you
Three uplifting stories to inspire you
Feeling a bit down, or maybe a trifle sorry for yourself, then keep on reading as today we meet three everyday people who have gone out of their way to make life better for their fellow humankind.
First up Former Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams, who, after losing his mother to breast cancer at the tender age of 53, decided to cover the cost of mammogram screening for women and men across the United States.
I have to admit that while researching this narrative, it never occurred to me that in one of the world’s wealthiest countries that mammogram screening is not accessible for everyone. However, now that I know this, it may explain why last year alone, 42,260 men and women died from breast cancer simply because it was not diagnosed in its early stages.
Breast Cancer, it would seem, was no stranger to the Williams family. DeAngelo had already witnessed the death of his young 53-year-old mother in 2014, and with four of his aunts dying from the disease before they reached the age of 50, you could say that the running back had been on the front line of the battle against cancer for most of his young life.
Determined to promote breast cancer awareness, the former Pittsburgh Steelers running back who started his career while attending the University of Memphis created a non-profit organization called The DeAngelo Williams Foundation. His reasons were simple. He hoped to spread awareness of the disease within time and then ultimately pay for free mammogram screening for everyone in the USA.
After holding fundraising campaigns in Memphis, Pittsburgh, Jonesboro, Pennsylvania; Tennessee; Arkansas; and Charlotte, North Carolina, the organization managed to pay for 53 screenings in each location. Now, however, after further successful campaigns and much work by the football player, the fledgling organization has managed to cover the cost of an astonishing 500 free mammogram screenings in each of the hospitals shown above, thus saving the lives of many who would have certainly perished from a disease that if found early enough, can be treated successfully.
Future goals of the foundation created by the quite outspoken former running back hope to extend free mammogram screenings not just to the original seven localities above but throughout the USA. If you would like to get involved with this fantastic project, please contact the foundation by using the following link either through donations or time.
The DeAngelo Williams Foundation
NBA Hall of Famer and TNT analyst donate a home to a paralyzed shooting victim.
Shaquille O’Neal, already well-known for his acts of generosity, has once again shown his fans that he indeed has a heart of gold by donating a home to the family of a boy left paralyzed by a random shooting after he left a football game at Lakewood Stadium, in Atlanta on Aug. 17 this year.
O’Neal, a father of five, apparently heard of the tragedy while watching television with his children. It would seem that the basketball player did not think twice before helping the family, especially after being told that the young boy could not be released from the hospital because the one-bedroom apartment he was living in with his mother and brother was not large enough to be equipped to handle his disability.
It took a while for the media to find out about his act of compassion, but once the story was leaked, the humble, soft-spoken NBA Hall of Famer said he quickly realized that this could have happened to anyone. It could even have happened to his son, he mused, so after speaking with his children, they all went out and found a house in the College Park area of the city, in his own words, “a good neighborhood.”
O’Neal will personally fork out the rent for a year, ensure that the house has wheelchair access, and even have all external doors fitted with door chime security cameras. A stunned and appreciated mother of the shooting victim said that she “believed in miracles and God and hoped that her son would once again walk one day.”
Since news of his generosity hit the media, other organizations and people have come on board to help the family including, Payton. Papa John’s CEO Rob Lynch and chairman Jeff Smith and the City of Atlanta Fire Department have offered both moral support and financial assistance. All in all, it would seem the kind people of Atlanta are all pitching in to ensure that the young boy and his family can now live safely in a home that they can call their own.
Note. The 15-year-old boy who carried out the shooting has now been arrested and charged with aggravated assault.
Southwest pilot returns remain of his hero dad after 52 years.
Bryan Knight was only five when, early one morning, along with his mother and siblings, he said goodbye to his father Col. Roy Knight at Dallas Love Field Airport. Like many young men of the day, his father was going to fight a war in far-off Vietnam, a country that many people of that era knew very little about. Little did the small boy know that he would never see his father again.
Although never giving up hope, many years passed, and the Knight family began to fear the worst for their hero fighter pilot father, then. In 1974, their worst fears were confirmed, military officials informed them that he had been shot down in Laos and declared dead, the whereabouts of his remains, according to them, remained unknown.
Bryan would himself become an airline pilot flying for Southwest Airlines for over twenty years, and it was while flying with them that he received the news that his father’s remains had at last been both found and identified. What was to follow can only be called both astounding and beautiful.
Bryan, as mentioned above, was serving as a pilot for Southwest Airlines. They very quickly permitted him to fly the remains of his father in one of their regular passenger planes back to the same Texas airport where 52 years ago, he, along with his family, had last bid him farewell.
On the allocated day of arrival, a crowded airport fell silent as the airliner approached the Dallas airport. All watchers were standing to attention as the plane taxied to a lumbering standstill outside the terminal, then, as airport workers on the tarmac stood together in silence, the colonel’s family received the flag-draped casket holding the remains of Col. Roy Knight. Col. Roy Knight had at last returned to the land of his birth, 52 years after leaving to fight a war in the service of his country.
Well, folks, I have come to the end of another short narrative. All that remains for me to do is to thank you for taking the time to read this, and also BargainBrute.Com (who incidentally were voted America’s favorite place to shop online) for giving me the platform to write these wonderfully inspirational true stories.
