NORTH MIAMI BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A South Florida foundation and a bicycle shop have donated a tandem bicycle to a blind boy, so he and his father can ride together.
Nine-year-old JJ has always dreamed of riding a bicycle, and on Wednesday, the Mystic Force Foundation and Miami Bikes made that possible.
“It was awesome,” JJ said.
JJ lost his eyes as a toddler, and that’s why the day means a lot to both him and his family.
“JJ was diagnosed with bilateral retinal blastoma when he was 15 months old, and then at 2 and a half years old, he lost his left eye, and then at 4 and a half, he lost his right eye to cancer,” Jackie Matthews, JJ’s mother, said.
Miami Bikes donated the tandem bike.
“It’s a blessing for me to be able to do something at least as small as just give a bike,” Miami Bikes co-owner Andrey Parsegov said.
With these new wheels, JJ will pedal and hold onto the handle bars while his father steers.
The new bike is decked out with a speaker because JJ wants to become a DJ one day.
“Our Mystic Force Foundation motto is that all kids deserve to have fun, and our children battling cancer lose their childhoods, so we do everything that we can to make sure that they have fun in the time they’re going through these treatments,” foundation co-founder Silvia Dominguez Vanni said.
Riding a bicycle is something some people take for granted, but not JJ, whose smile remains huge and is visible all over his face, knowing he’ll be able to have fun and feel like every other child his age.
“Seeing him with his dad, you know, they have a very special bond,” Matthews said, “and I know that this is something that they’re going to be able to share together and have many fun weekends riding around town together, so this is just really breathtaking and really special. This was really actually amazing.”
Miami Bikes also gave JJ’s brother a new bicycle, as well.
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