Good NewsToddler with brain cancer inspires 76-hour soccer match for charity
On Thursday afternoon, 36 men at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, started playing a soccer game.
The match ended 76 hours later, on Sunday at 5 p.m.
Inspired by their coach's 2-year-old son Jackson Steinkuehler, who battled brain cancer, the soccer players hoped their world-record-length game — the equivalent of 51 regular games — would help them raise $100,000 for pediatric cancer research.
[ Good News: 'I am dead': Swedish man writes own obituary, keeps it simple ]
"This is our way of saying, 'You know what? We're going to take charge now. We're going to do everything in our power to raise money so parents don't have to go through what we did,'" Steinkuehler said of the game.
During the marathon game, players couldn't leave the field area. Portable showers, temporary lights, tented sleeping quarters and volunteer-prepared meals were all brought in to help the players survive the epic match.
"It's only 36 guys playing 76 hours," coach Rob Steinkuehler told the State Journal-Register.
Josh Hellums, the father of Blackburn freshman goalkeeper Justin Hellums, helped organize the event — and played in the game, too.
[ Good News: Oklahoma teen sells found 3.85-carat diamond for college ]
"He saw what my family was going through," Steinkuehler said. "He had never done soccer, and he wanted to do it with his son."
Steinkuehler's son Jackson was diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer when he was 15 months old. After undergoing a series of surgeries, radiation and chemotherapy, the toddler now appears to be cancer-free.
Watch Jackson's story below:
