ATLANTA -- A metro Atlanta woman who delayed her cancer treatment so
she could see Chipper Jones play one last time, will be going to the
Wild Card game Friday night.
The Braves have given Laura Stallings two tickets to the game, after
hearing about her story from 11Alive. The Braves already knew of Laura
from the now famous photo of her holding up a poster that read "I
skipped chemo to see Chipper."
For two days, her identity remained a mystery, as sports blogs around
the country aired the photo, that was taken by a fellow fan and
retweeted by the Braves.
"He's always been my favorite," said Stallings, who loves Chipper Jones.
A star softball player at Wheeler High School in Cobb County, she
dreamed of playing with him. "Everybody told me I hit like him."
Now 23 years old, Laura is battling stage four kidney cancer that has
not responded to treatment. But she wanted to see Chipper one last
time.
"I put something on Facebook jokingly, that we couldn't really afford tickets but we really wanted to go" she said.
A friend from church bought her two tickets. Laura delayed her chemo treatment for the week so she would be well enough to go.
"All I wanted to do was be on the big screen and see if Chipper saw it," she said.
Laura made the big screen, holding her poster that said "I skipped
chemo to see Chipper." A fellow fan also took a photo and it exploded
on social media, was retweeted by the Braves, and seen, talked and
written about around the country.
"It was kind of a miracle day for me," Laura said. "I'm glad it got
captured because I just wanted to remember it, to keep it by the bed and
know that was one of the best days to help me keep going."
At the age of 23 Laura's dreams are to live, to beat the cancer. And
because of a photo, there are more people than ever pulling for her.
"People I don't know telling me they hope I'm doing O.K. and their prayers are with us," she said. "That's what counts the most."
WXIA