A terminally ill Utah teen battling cancer has been gifted a $30,000 Ford Mustang and the chance to race it.
Joseph Tegerdine, 18, may have less than a year to live after battling bone cancer since seventh grade, but he’s fighting for every day after his father achieved his dream of owning the iconic car.
And when Ford’s boss heard about the story, he tweeted an invitation to the young athlete to test drive the company’s racing school in North Carolina.
‘It was really crazy. That tweet was just kind of random,” father Joe Tergerdine Sr. said. “He sent me a direct message saying, ‘Hey, do you want me to do this?’
“If all goes well, his guys would set everything up at the Ford Performance Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
‘I need an instructor, a trainer. Plus I get to drive one of the most powerful Ford track Mustangs around,” said Joe Jr., “This is getting sick.”
Joseph Tegerdine Jr (right) with his family Langston, London, Joe, Kerry and Grace
“They’re flying us there. It’s just really cool, and we’re staying in Charlotte for a few days.
‘There’s a big dinner before school. Then Joseph takes the (Mustang) Dark Horse onto the track.”
Joe Jr. has been a fan of the car since he was small enough to sit in his toy Mustang in the driveway of the family’s then-home in Melissa, Texas.
He was working at Sodalicious to save up for the real thing, when his father decided he might not have time anymore.
“With everything that’s happening and we found out he has more tumors in his lungs, we had to buy the car,” he told the Detroit Free Press.
“For those wondering why I would buy my 18 year old son a 330 hp Mustang, he has months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself,” he tweeted on March 2.
“His comment on the way home: ‘Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months out of my life to drive this.’ #cancersucks.
Within hours, the tweet went viral, racking up 14 million views and catching the attention of Ford CEO Jim Farley.
“Hi Joe, I’m so sorry to hear what your family is going through,” the car boss tweeted back.
‘Let me know if you and your son would like to attend @FPRacingSchool to experience a @FordMustang Dark Horse on the track. DM me and we’ll make it happen.’
Joe Sr.’s tweet and photo of his son behind the wheel of the 2020 Mustang were viewed 14 million times on X and caught the attention of Ford CEO Jim Farley
Joseph Tegerdine Jr with his girlfriend Lily and the Ford Bronco his family sold
The young couple has been dealing with Joe’s terminal diagnosis and the loss of his right leg
“You have to live day to day because if you look at my life, day to day it’s actually fantastic,” Joe Jr. said.
Joe (left) on field trip with father Joe Sr. and brother Langston
Joe Jr was only a year into high school when he started experiencing persistent knee pain after football that kept him awake at night.
An MRI discovered an osteosarcoma and killed Joe Jr. became a grueling series of surgeries and chemotherapy.
“Life just goes in a certain direction and it’s hard to explain how quickly things changed for the whole family,” Joe Sr. said.
‘I don’t remember how many weeks and treatments passed, but they had to take a large part of his right leg to remove the tumor.
“He had a ‘rotationplasty’ where they cut away the bad bone and rotated your lower leg, took the tibia and fibula and reattached them to the femur. They remove the affected bone. He now has a prosthesis.’
“In seventh grade I was five feet tall and taller than everyone else on the football team,” Joe Jr. recalled.
‘So they let me play center and also play back. Then I grew eight inches in a year, and I’m now six feet tall.
‘One of the hallmarks of bone cancer is sudden and extreme growth.’
But he never lost his interest in cars and the Mustangs of his dreams.
“I’ve loved Mustangs for as long as I can remember,” he said.
“I was a six-year-old and I liked it, the headlights looked cool, and I stuck with it.
“I used to drive this Ford Bronco. Actually it was a big truck. I got compliments and felt so manly. ‘We sold it and I started driving my mother’s minivan, a Honda Odyssey. I felt like my testosterone was being drained. Not good.
The family is currently checking off a vacation on their bucket list to Osaka, Japan
“Over the years, I have known many parents who have lost their children to sudden tragedy, never having the chance to say goodbye,” Joseph Sr. said.
“In a Mustang I feel like a man again,” he joked.
‘It’s the stupidest thing. When you get in and start, the car rumbles around you. It’s not a sound, it’s a feeling.
‘When you take a bend, you feel like you’re being pushed through the corner from behind. I like the feeling of rear wheel drive. When you turn the (steering) wheel, I feel the corners are cleaner.’
And he already knows how he’s going to make the most of his all-expenses-paid trip to Charlotte Motor Speedway, starting with smoking tires.
“I don’t know how to drift,” he explained, “I’ve always been too scared to go into a parking lot to find out because I’d just hit a light pole or something.
‘I need an instructor, a trainer. I also get to drive one of the most powerful Ford track Mustangs available.
“This is getting sick.”
Joe Jr says his family is lucky compared to what some have to endure.
“Over the years, I have known many parents who have lost their children to sudden tragedy and never had the chance to say goodbye,” he explained.
‘I’m in Japan now. I have the car of my dreams, I’m surrounded by a lot of people that I absolutely love and I’m going to driving school,” Joe Jr. said.
“When my son was first diagnosed, I had to make a decision. Curse God and die, or try to make the best of a very bad situation. With the perspective of what it would be like to experience a sudden loss, I decided to be grateful.
‘Grateful that we had the 18 years to build memories and enjoy him.
“Even now, with the only treatments left to prolong life and manage pain, I am grateful that he is still with us, making the most of what life has to offer under less than ideal circumstances.
“My heart is still broken, but I know it could be much worse.”
The family is currently enjoying a bucket list vacation in Osaka, Japan, before returning for their racetrack adventure.
“You have to live day to day because if you look at my life, day to day it’s actually fantastic,” Joe Jr. said.
‘I’m in Japan now. I have the car of my dreams, I am surrounded by a lot of people I love and I am going to driving school.
‘Then you look into the future and everything starts to collapse. I don’t really have to look to the future. ‘Morbidly, I don’t really have one. I can’t say, ‘In a year…’ If I get a year, I’ll be extremely lucky.”