Russell Wilson is everywhere. Clearly, job one is in Arizona preparing for Sunday’s Super Bowl. The Seahawks quarterback is a pitchman for Alaska Airlines. He is the public face of the Strong Against Cancer campaign at Seattle Children’s Hospital. And he has a special place in the heart of an Everett mother whose 16-year-old son lost his leukemia battle.
It is well known that Wilson spends every Tuesday — but not this week — visiting young patients at Seattle Children’s Hospital. What Kristi Messenger learned is how much those visits mean.
Her son, Michael Alcayaga, a Cascade High School sophomore, died May 20 at Seattle Children’s, where he was treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The day before he died, Wilson and Seattle rap artist Macklemore spent about an hour in Michael’s hospital room.
Wilson wrote in the family’s journal and led the circle of Michael’s loved ones and Cascade friends in prayer. “He filled out a whole page in the journal. He wrote I love you five times,” Messenger said Monday.
Visits by Seahawks and other athletes give kids something to look forward to, she said. “It brightens their day, especially when they’re so caring like Russell.”
Carly Young, director of development for Seattle Children’s Hospital Foundation, said Wilson has visited the hospital every Tuesday for almost three years. He surprised the staff by even showing up the Tuesday after the NFC Championship win over the Green Bay Packers. At Seattle Children’s, Young said, blue Tuesdays rather than blue Fridays find folks dressed in Seahawks jerseys.
The hospital also has relationships with the Seattle Mariners and the Sounders. Sue Bird, point guard with the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, was a recent visitor. “All our teams feel connected to the hospital and want to bring players in,” Young said.
With Wilson, it’s personal. In a blog on the Seattle Children’s website, the quarterback wrote recently that he spent a lot of time visiting a hospital before his father died of diabetes in 2010. He said in the blog that those experiences helped him understand challenges hospitalized children and their families face. “Their strength has been an inspiration to me,” Wilson wrote.
Messenger and her son met Wilson for the first time during a patient family gathering at the Seattle hospital in December 2013. Along with his firm handshake, she noticed something else about Wilson that day. “After he would take pictures with kids, he made sure he got their names,” she said. “He cared enough to really want to know their names.”
Young said the visits do more than give kids an autographed photo of a sports hero. “What it does for the patient and their family, it can uplift care,” she said. “Having someone come in like Russell, he’s truly making an impact beyond that 5 minutes he’s in a room. That support puts people in better spirits. It can change how they communicate with a nurse. It’s not a one-day thing.”
Now, Wilson is “captain” of Strong Against Cancer, a $100 million fundraising campaign to support research aimed at curing some childhood cancers, including the leukemia Michael had. Money raised by the campaign will pay for research on immunotherapy and patient access to clinical trials at Seattle Children’s Hospital.
The therapy involves reprogramming the body’s T-cells and reintroducing them into the immune system, where they hunt down and destroy cancer cells. Along with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the research will also target neuroblastoma, another childhood cancer.
Messenger said her son underwent the T-cell therapy Wilson is now supporting, and that in a clinical trial “Michael was patient No. 3” — Wilson’s jersey number. “They’re doing amazing research,” she said. “It’s too late for my son. It might be just in time for somebody else’s son.”
Michael, who played baseball and basketball at Cascade, is also survived by his father, Bill Alcayaga, and triplet sisters Amanda, Brooke and Courtney Alcayaga. Part of Cascade’s freshman class, all three play basketball.
Her boy is always in her thoughts. And Messenger will never forget the kindness of an elite NFL quarterback. “It means so much to those kids,” she said.
Like thousands of Hawks fans, she marveled at the team’s come-from-behind victory over the Packers.
“With two minutes left in the game, Russell didn’t give up,” she said. “These kids, they don’t want to give up.”
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
Learn about the Strong Against Cancer campaign to support immunotherapy treatment for childhood cancer at Seattle Children’s Hospital: www.strongagainstcancer.org
To donate $10 to Strong Against Cancer, text STRONG to 501501
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