At 19 years old, Troy Mc Veigh was diagnosed with stage four Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer. After eight intravenous cycles, and being unable to complete any further cycles, Troy was faced with a terminal sentence and thus began his bucket list of all the things he wishes he could experience in his lifetime.
Troy has always had a passion for cars. Anything fast, and anything that can smoke the tyres has always made him smile. After The Edge radio station arranged for Troy to have a ride in a Ferrari, his friends decided they also wanted to pay tribute to the brave young man.
Over the weekend, a group of Troy’s fellow friends and family members gathered to show him how much they respect him and his bravery in the hope of making him smile. We gathered together a group of modified vehicles and drove to Troy’s front door. As he made his way outside, we introduced ourselves to him and shook hands.
Spark Tauranga got wind of the event and made an appearance. The two representatives gave Troy a brand-new phone, ticking off an item from his list.
For the next 30 minutes, Troy made his way around all of the vehicles, asking questions about the performance of some and the build times of others.
A group of men close to Troy performed a hair-raising Haka that had us all fighting back tears.
Ten minutes later we heard the distinct sound of a rotary engine fire up. It was Troy’s 13b RX-7, built and donated by Green Brothers Racing’s Richard and Chris. Troy was gearing up for his last burnout.
We followed him out and watched as he positioned his RX-7 in the middle of the road and let rip.
Troy, who although had very limited movement remaining in his arms and legs, dumped the clutch and started smoking those tyres. We all screamed and cheered as he skidded up the rubber on the bucket-list RX-7.
There were tears of sadness and joy. Just knowing that we got to be a part of something that made Troy smile and meant so much to his family was such a privilege.
Here is a link to Troys bucket list page: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/troymcveigh
Leave a message, or something you’d like to say to Troy in the comments below. We’d like to start off by saying we have huge respect for you Troy. Oh, and nice skid!
