Los Banos youth has his ‘wish’ come true, meets the Dallas Cowboys

The Make A Wish Foundation is a group that has repeatedly earned my respect.

With the help of our region’s representative, Michele Sanders, I have had the privilege of sharing some local stories of our children who have benefited from this organization.

Late last year I was contacted by Make A Wish Foundation advocate, Betsy Wiliams, about the story of Los Banos high school student, Angel Bringas.

It has taken months to have all the pieces come together for me, but it is with humility and pride that I now share this story of one of our Los Banos families.

Sara Payne and her family have lived in Los Banos for 22 years. This young woman currently attends CSU Stanislaus and her family has 7 children in our school district; Angel Bringas 17 LBH, Noah Bergar 12, and Jeremiah Bergara, both attending Charleston as well as cousins Kenneth Payne 13, Creekside, Hugh Payne 12, Austin 7, and Alexandra Payne at Charleston.

They all lived a normal life until Friday, June 9, 2017. Here I’ll let Sara tell some of her story:

“Angel, then 13, was playing video games at his grandmother’s home. Angel noticed that his left arm and hand had become numb, then the left side of his face became numb as well. When my younger brother, who was there at the time, asked him to try and smile, there was a droop on Angel’s left side.

I will never forget getting that phone call from Angel’s grandmother saying that she was rushing Angel to Los Banos Memorial Hospital.

By the time I got there Angel was not able to answer questions and his eyes were rolling. He was immediately admitted. About four hours later he was flown to Stanford Children Hospital to stay in the ICU.

I cannot tell you how worried I felt during that time. I can only say it felt like I was standing out of my body. After three days of intense testing, we were told that Angel has Acute Lymphoblastic leukemia. A cancer that affects the blood.”

Although Angel’s oncologist explained to them that this was a very common cancer and the success rate was high, Sara, as a mother, was frightened and feared the worst.

Angel’s family was set up with a social worker who was very kind, as Sara explained:

“Betsy was so good with us that it motivated me to choose my career choice to be a social worker.

She explained to Angel what was going on in his body and told him about the battle his body would need to endure for the next four years. She helped me with hygiene items and food vouchers as I had rushed off to the hospital with nothing.

That kindness meant so much. Angel was a little confused at first, and he was of course scared, but he never gave up his smile.”

Next after being transferred out of ICU he went to the Bass Childhood Cancer Center for one month for rigorous chemotherapy treatment.

When Angel was released he became relaxed believing his chemo was done, but he then had to endure three months of radiation to the brain and continued to receive chemo weekly. Sara explains:

“At the time I was a single mother with limited resources. This situation was hard on my entire family. We have to remember that a whole family is affected when something like that happens. I had to focus on helping AJ and so my family didn’t get the time they were used to.

Driving back and forth from Los Banos to Palo Alto was an exhausting, expensive trip. I was able to get in contact with Angel’s Dad and he agreed to stay with Angel for four weeks.

Then I had to do the weekly trips. Luckily I have a lot of family support. I told my social worker the cost of gas was hard on me, having only a minimum wage job, and she arranged for gas vouchers.”

Then one day the social worker asked Sara if she had ever heard of the Make A Wish Foundation. Although Sara had heard of them, she was not very familiar, so the worker explained that Angel did qualify for a referral so he could get one wish granted.

After about a year of treatment, Angel was finally in remission. A representative for the Make A Wish Foundation was there to help celebrate with the family.

He asked Angel what his wish was. Angel said he wanted to go to Texas to watch a Dallas Cowboy game at AT&T Stadium.

”Due to COVID-19 Angels’ wish was put off for years,” Sara said. “But luckily the foundation was able to grant his wish on Dec. 26. The foundation paid for everything.”

Angel said he made the wish, having loved the Cowboys as long as he could remember.

“But while I was sick, sitting in the bed, not feeling good, the Dallas Cowboys always made me feel better, even if they lost. It was something I could look forward to even on my bad days,” he said.

The Dallas Cowboys football games were one of the few bright spots in my tough four years of treatment.” Angel’s mother, Sara, further explained,” Angel has always been a very timid, quiet person, but when he was actually able to shake the hands of his favorite team’s players, happiness filled the air. He looked at me and said,’Is this for real?’”

Asked about the favorite part of his trip, Angel replied,” Meeting Zeke (Ezekiel Elliott) and getting the helmet signed by the whole team! Giving me this gift and saying, ‘This is for you.’ The whole team came to meet me. So I think just watching the team practice, not to mention I was able to ride in the Cowboy bus on the way to practice.”

“This was everything to me!” he continued. “Even seeing the Welcome to me on the practice scoreboard meant a lot to me. Then when it was game night, Dak (Prescott) and Zeke greeted me and said, ‘Ready for the show?’”

“A part that also brought my family to tears. When it was time to leave the sidelines, coach Mike McCarthy came and took a picture with me and said, ‘Angel, if you ever need anything please do not hesitate to reach out. You and your family are part of the Dallas Cowboy family now!’” Angle said.

“This made me realize my wish had come true, not only did I get to meet the team, but I am a part of the Dallas Cowboy family. And that means the world to me.”

When asked what Sara Payne thought of the Make Wish Foundation, she shared that she was very impressed and that she wanted to thank them from the bottom of her heart for making her son’s wish come true in more ways than they could possibly understand.

“My whole family will be donating in the future. I would like to thank Angel’s Make A Wish Foundation’s advocate, Betsy. She is the most amazing woman I have ever met,” she said.

Information about an upcoming Make A Wish Foundation Fundraiser will be in a future column.