The Carolina Panthers will have a special guest joining them Tuesday.
Parker Cowherd, a first-grader at Huntersville Elementary School, suffers from a rare form of cancer.
As part of a Make-A-Wish program, Parker received a playbook and official jersey Thursday from the team with all his classmates present. The playbook says "Top Secret. For Carolina Panthers players and coaches only."
The 7-year-old was diagnosed with mild spastic cerebral palsy in his early years, according to the keeppoundingforparker.com website.
In November 2015 an MRI revealed a tumor on his spine. He was then diagnosed with an extremely rare glioneuronal tumor.
According to the website, Parker’s cancer has moved down his spine and up into his lower brain.
Parker is currently receiving treatment at Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte and began chemotherapy in December.
Because of this rarity, both preclinical and clinical research efforts on his tumor type lag behind the more prevalent forms of brain tumors. However, family members are very hopeful of Parker's future based on recent breakthroughs in cancer research.
According to the Keep Pounding for Parker Facebook page his next round of chemotherapy is scheduled to begin next Wednesday,
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