ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s tennis team has a lot to be thankful for these days, from having four players come out of a car accident during the season relatively unscathed, to the whole deal about getting to play tennis and be on scholarship. Now, the Lobo women’s tennis team has joined with Team Impact, and UNM will get the chance to help make a dream come true.
The women’s tennis team and Team Impact will host a “Draft Day” celebration on Tuesday at 1 p.m. at the Lobo Tennis Club, where the team will announce the signing of 16-year old Megan Callison-Martinez to a National Letter of Intent. Callison-Martinez is 16-years old and is one of 30,000 people living in the United States with cystic fibrosis, a disease predominantly diagnosed in children by the age of two.
Megan is not eligible for a life-saving lung transplant, and is currently on pediatric hospice. Megan and her family live within 20 minutes of UNM Hospital due to medical requirements. Megan requires 24-hour care, and her mother currently stays with her. Friends of the family have set up a gofundme.com page to help with the rising medical costs.
https://www.gofundme.com/megans-bucket-list
“We are absolutely thrilled to be able to join with Team Impact and share this very special moment with Megan,” said Wooten-Quijada. “She is a beautiful spirit and I know that she and her parents are very excited, as is my team. We are so honored to be a part of this.”
The event will include Megan’s parents, and she will sign a National Letter of Intent. The hope is that this will a memory for her family to last a lifetime.
Team IMPACT is a national nonprofit that connects children facing serious and chronic illnesses with local college athletic teams, forming life-long bonds and life-changing outcomes. Through the Team IMPACT CF Project sponsored by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, children who have CF, like Megan are drafted onto local college athletic teams and become an official member of the team to support the child’s physical, social and emotional needs. By being a part of The University of New Mexico Women’s Tennis program, Megan will attend Lobos practices, games, team dinners, events, and more.
Since 2011, Team IMPACT has matched more than 1,400 children with more than 500 colleges and universities in 47 states, reaching over 35,000 participating student-athletes. The child joins the athletic team and the student-athletes join the child’s support team – from Draft Day to Graduation. During the journey, the child gains strength, camaraderie and support while the student-athletes experience lessons of courage, resiliency and perspective they can’t learn in a classroom. Megan’s determination to persevere through adversity has already made her an inspiration to the rest of her future Lobos teammates.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Shelby Carney, Team IMPACT, Marketing & Communications Coordinator
scarney@goteamimpact.org // (978) 835-8538
Stephanie Wooten-Quijada, Head Coach – Women’s Tennis
Stephaniewq@unm.edu // 214-418-7371
Chris Stamm, Vertex Director of Product Communications
mediainfo@vrtx.com // (617) 341-6992
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About Team IMPACT
Team IMPACT is a national nonprofit headquartered in Boston that connects children facing serious or chronic illnesses with college athletic teams, forming life-long bonds and life-changing outcomes. Team IMPACT has more than 1,000 teams across the country waiting to be matched with children, ages 5-16, who have been diagnosed with a life-threatening or chronic illness and who could benefit from becoming a member of the team. If you know a child who may be interested, visit www.goteamimpact.org for more information.
About Vertex Pharmaceuticals
The CF community motivates Vertex employees each day to dig deeper, to do more, to explore the “what ifs,” and to push the boundaries of what we know. We aim to discover and develop medicines that will treat the underlying cause of CF for the vast majority of people with the disease, and our ultimate goal is to cure it. Beyond our transformational medicines, we help people with CF lead active lives and pursue higher education, and we fund independent research and innovative patient centric programs. To learn more please visit www.vrtxallincf.com.