Liam Fitzgerald, a brave 8-year-old boy with Down Syndrome who successfully battled cancer got to fist bump all the players on his favorite hockey team. And if the adorable reaction from Liam and the players alike doesn't get you, your heart must be colder than the surface the players skate on.
Footage of the exchange between Liam — wearing a Bruins team hat and jacket — and the players went viral with nearly 1.5 million views:
Boston.com reported that Liam was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia when he was just four-years-old. After three and a half years of battling the grueling illness he survived but didn't let it stop him from rooting for his favorite teams — namely the Bruins and the Red Sox.
Liam visited Fenway Park this past summer as a guest of starting pitcher Clay Buchholz, but Boston.com reports that Liam's true love is the Bruins and he even dressed up as defenseman Adam McQuaid for Halloween last year.
The Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, who has a partnership with the Bruins Foundation for an annual charity fundraiser, told McQuaid that Liam is a big fan of his, so the player invited the little guy and his family to the Bruins game.
Liam was beaming as he met Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, and even former Bruins Johnny Boychuk and Shawn Thornton.
"It not the attention, it’s the smile they bring to his face," said his mom, Christine Fitzgerald.
And that smile is pretty infectious.
