Player's Mom's Cancer Battle Prompts Fans Of Rival Football Teams To Sport Purple
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. (CBS4)- It's the playoff game between ThunderRidge High School and Fairview High School, but you won't find much of their team colors in the stands.
Instead, football fans, cheerleaders, even coaches, are sporting purple… the favorite color of a ThunderRidge High School football player's mom.
"There's no words for it, to be honest with you… it brings tears to my eyes," Kristen Radochonski said.
Radochonski is battling leukemia. She's been fighting the aggressive cancer for two years and wasn't sure she'd make it to see what could be her son's last football game.
"My blood counts are just really low," she told CBS4's Kelly Werthmann.
With the help of faith, family and friends, she found strength to be in the crowd – purple mask and all.
"It won't keep me from cheering," she said, "and it's a cold night so it'll keep my face warm."
But what warms her the most is "Kristen's Love Squad," a group of family and friends who have supported her throughout her long battle. They piled on the purple Friday night in her honor.
"We just wanted to show her in a big way that she can see how loved she is by all of us," Martha Petersen, a family friend, said.
While this game may be in honor of Kristen, her hope is this night spreads a message of love and the value of a great team.
"Just be somebody's love squad," Radochonski said holding back tears. "If you can be somebody's love squad then I think you're doing everything you can do."
In the end, Thunder Ridge beat Fairview 30-13.