Miracle Kid Jayden attends the Final Four

Jayden Moore was born 14 weeks premature and diagnosed with a Grade III/IV intracranial hemorrhage on the right side of his brain in 2004. His prematurity caused numerous medical complications requiring ventilator support, a feeding tube for nutrition and multiple blood transfusions. After spending three months in Levine Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive and Progressive Care Nurseries in Charlotte, North Carolina, Jayden went home for the first time.

“Jayden was extremely premature but there are a lot of other kids going through even more significant issues,” explains Jayden’s mom Yolanda who became a hospital volunteer to help other families who had babies in the NICU find hope and encouragement during their time of need. “Even if they start out at a one pound, 10 ounces—where Jayden started—there is hope that they will get through that. It’s been really awesome to watch him grow up from being that one-pound baby to where he is now—big and strong.”

Now 12, Jayden was diagnosed with epilepsy at age 8 but it rarely slows him, or his love of all sports, down.

In 2016, Jayden was chosen as a Speedway Miracle Child representing Levine Children’s Hospital. The Miracle Child program allows one child from each of the 40 Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Speedway supports to represent them at activities across the 22 states they operate in.

“We had the opportunity to travel to Ohio in June to the Speedway Miracle Golf Tournament and had some really awesome sponsors—Zink, Anthony and KPS—and those guys let Jayden hang out with them on the golf course and got to be best buds,” recalls Yolanda. “The second to the last night of the golf tournament, Jim Zink brought Jayden over and presented him with the most amazing gift—which was tickets to the Final Four this year.”

 Fast forward to March 2017 and Jayden and Yolanda found themselves in Phoenix, Arizona to enjoy a weekend of college basketball games. “What’s amazing is that when he got the tickets we had no clue who was going to be in the Final Four,” Yolanda continues. “Being from South Carolina and we live in North Carolina how much better could it be that the Carolina Gamecocks and the Tar Heels ended up being in the Final Four?!”

Sporting a University of North Carolina Tar Heels shirt, Jayden and his mom took in several games while enjoying the atmosphere surrounding the playoffs.

As their Final Four trip neared its end, Yolanda confides, “It has been surreal, watching the whole thing come together. Just being here is something that every kid dreams of experiencing.”

Speedway has supported Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals since 1991.