Philadelphia Wings, Make-A-Wish Foundation build home gym for teen recovering from leukemia, training to play soccer again

KYW, LOCKETT FAMILY, CNN

By Aziza Shuler

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    Pennsylvania (KYW) — When 16-year-old Tyler Lockett came home from school Monday afternoon, he had no idea what awaited him.

His mother stood at the front door of his home in Chalfont, Pennsylvania, holding a blindfold.

She led him into the basement, where a surprise was waiting.

It was his very own at-home gym, fully equipped with a power rack, free weights, a leg press machine and much more. The dream come true was made possible by $10,000 in equipment donations from REP Fitness and National Fitness Partners to Make-A-Wish Philadelphia, Delaware & Susquehanna Valley.

Philadelphia Wings players Sam LeClair and Deacan Knott even pitched in to help assemble everything.

“I just felt mind-blown,” Lockett said. “I can’t believe a Philadelphia sports team is at my house right now,”

Just last year, Lockett was an active teenager, balancing school and sports. He had achieved his goal of making his high school’s varsity soccer team.

But on Jan. 5, 2024, his life changed. He collapsed in the shower, and doctors diagnosed him with leukemia.

“Hearing those words on that day was the craziest,” he said.

“It was a day I don’t think we’ll ever forget,” his mother, Michelle Lockett, said.

Through months of chemotherapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in King of Prussia, Tyler Lockett said he focused on two things: his family and his desire to play soccer again.

“I think those two were the things that kept me going through everything,” he said.

His wish? A gym to help him rebuild his strength so he could eventually return to the sport he loves.

“It’s tangible to see the excitement he has and to know he will be able to use this room for years to come,” Michelle Ruel, with Make-A-Wish, said. “He has shared that he wants to become a physical therapist. So to be able to start and continue to train and get back into soccer, it’s something we’re so happy to be able to grant for him.”

Despite ongoing maintenance therapy to keep his cancer in remission, Tyler Lockett is determined to grow stronger every day.

His mother said, “One thing that we have learned is to push yourself every day.”

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