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‘This Is Huge For Me:' Cam Newton Makes Sunnyvale Mom's Dream Come True

Cam Newton didn’t just take time out of his super busy week to fulfill a cancer victim’s bucket list wish — he went a step further.

Scot Sieczko first became captivated with Newton in 2010 (even though the rest of his family were loyal 49er fans).

“One day he called me in the middle of a Florida Gators game,” his mother Trae Sieczko, who lives in Sunnyvale, said. “You have to watch Auburn mommy, there’s this kid quarterback you have to see,’ he told me.”

Trae Sieczko and the rest of the Sieczkos have been Cam Newton fans since then. “We followed his career and became Carolina Panthers’ fans because Cam Newton went there,” she said.

When Trae Sieczko lost her son to cancer in 2014, she knew there was one thing she wanted from his role model – “tick it off Scot’s bucket list,” as she describes it: Have Newton sign her son’s jersey.

“To me this is a connection to my son — how silly this sounds that a signature would mean so much to someone,” she said. “But this signature represents a wish that Scot didn’t get to fulfill. So he lives through me. I keep going as his mom, as any mom would do for her kids.”

On Monday night, that wish finally came true, only in a bigger way.

Newton went a step durther, signing a Panthers jersey for Scot after meeting with his mother and the rest of Scot’s family at the SAP Center for Super Bowl 50 Opening Night.

Trae’s efforts to reach Newton was the result of a long chain of events — It caught the attention of Jaime Mathews, the mayor of Santa Clara, who then reached out to 49ers CEO Jed York, who had the team’s VP of communications Bob Lange get in touch with the Panthers’ Director of Communications, Steve Drummond.

“Cam said he wanted me there at Opening Night so he could sign Scot’s jersey,” Sieczko said. “I’m still in LaLa land and can’t believe it happened. But it did. Checking this off Scot’s bucket list is huge for me.”

Trae Sieczko is keeping Scot’s memory alive by forming a non-profit to help children with cancer.

Scot’s motto was “Shred childhood cancer.”

As for their support for Newton: “We will follow him wherever he goes,” Sieczko said.

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I want to Thank Cam Newton for taking a few minutes of his time to sign Scot Sieczko's jersey. Now I can check that off... Posted by Trae Sieczko on Monday, February 1, 2016

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