'Kick That Cancer's Butt!': Airline Worker Goes Above & Beyond To Find Cancer Patient's Lost Luggage
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- These are bittersweet times for Stacy Hurt, a married mother of two.
She'll receive maintenance chemotherapy for colon cancer for the rest of her life.
After a recent cancer retreat in Nashville, she caught an earlier flight on Southwest, not enough time for a luggage switch.
Her suitcase held items she uses in her crusade against cancer. When it didn't arrive, she says, she made a call.
"I immediately panicked, because I had chemotherapy the next day, and I knew that I had a lot of items in the suitcase that I needed and wanted for chemotherapy. One of them was medication. But many of them were personal items to me. I just started getting very emotional, and I started to cry," said Stacy.
Describing the young woman who answered, she said, "She sort of picked up on my emotion, and she said, 'We'll get that luggage to you somehow, some way.'"
The Southwest employee that Stacy spoke with didn't give up.
Sarah Rowan finally found the suitcase, but couriers were off by that time. She voluntarily drove the suitcase to Stacy's home at 3 o'clock in the morning.
"I've had family members who have been ill," she explained. "And I understand in that situation things are already rough. And if I can just do my part to make things a little bit easier, that's what led me to her house."
She left the suitcase on Stacy's porch.
"I opened up my luggage and not only were all my things intact, but right on top was this beautiful handwritten note on tissue paper: 'Myself and my Southwest family are wishing you all the best.'"
"I wish I could meet her because I'd give her the biggest hug," Sarah said.
Facebook had been their only connection, until Sarah received a call from Stacy at the airport.
"I cannot believe you drove my suitcase at 3 in the morning. I can't believe it," Stacy said.
"That was the least of my troubles," Sarah told Stacy. "If I can make your day a little bit better, I would."
And for Stacy, it was more than just a little better.
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