For six-year-old Asher Harvey, a visit to the Carolina Panthers turned into a day he will never forget. The young Patnthers fan is born with a complex heart condition and has undergone multiple surgeries.Last Thursday, he signed a one-day contract with the NFL team, spent time with the players and coaches, and even scored a touchdown in front of fans at Bank of America Stadium during Fan Fest.The special day was organised by the Carolina Panthers in partnership with Make-A-Wish after Asher, from Mooresville, North Carolina, wished to meet Panthers quarterback Bryce Young and the team’s mascot, Sir Purr.From the moment he arrived, Asher was treated like a Panthers player. He signed a contract, attended team meetings, learned plays from the coaching staff and shared the field with his favourite players. The day ended with him running into the end zone for a touchdown during the Fan Fest event, with thousands of fans cheering him on.
Asher sharing the field with his favourite players
A heart that works differently
Ashley Harvey, Asher’s mother, says doctors discovered during her 22-week pregnancy scan that Asher would be born with a serious heart condition. The diagnosis changed the family’s outlook on life from that moment.“You really, you can’t take anything for granted. You have to celebrate one good day, and if something doesn’t go well, then that’s ok. It’s one day, and then there’s another one that comes after that. So I think that what helped me was just keeping one foot in front of the other and just focusing on getting to that next place,” she says, as reported by Panthers.Asher was born with tricuspid atresia, transposition of the great arteries and coarctation of the aorta. “For lack of a better term, he essentially only has half of the heart,” Ashley explains. “His heart has to work a little bit differently in order to pump blood through the rest of his body.”Because of the condition, Asher underwent open-heart surgery when he was just six days old. Another surgery, originally planned for six months of age, was delayed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He later had another operation when he was four years old. His parents say he will eventually need a heart transplant.
Panthers helped family
During Asher’s early years, the family received support from The HEARTest Yard, a charity started by former Panthers player Greg Olsen and his wife Kara after their own son faced a congenital heart condition.The organisation partnered with Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte to provide nursing support to families caring for children with serious heart problems. Ashley says those services made an enormous difference during the months after Asher came home from hospital.“When he was little, when he had just come home, there was that stage between being a 1-month-old baby and having 6-month surgery, and that was very frightening because his oxygen saturations could drop at the drop of a hat for anything. If he got a cold or if there was some sort of restriction in his airways, it could be very dangerous for him.” she says.The family also felt fortunate to live close to Levine Children’s Hospital. “I tell everyone that this was, obviously, very unexpected. This is not a path that anybody wants to walk down, but if we had to be somewhere, we were here and we were so close to the hospital,” Ashley says.
Wish comes true
When Make-A-Wish first asked Asher what he wanted, he said he wanted to go to a Carolina Panthers game.” After learning he could ask for something even bigger, he thought about what he wanted most. “I want to meet Bryce Young and Sir Purr,” he decided. The wish set everything in motion.Before Fan Fest, Asher and his family visited the stadium, where he toured the Panthers’ facilities and even tried on a game-worn Greg Olsen jersey and gloves. On the day of the event, Sir Purr welcomed Asher at the players’ entrance before Panthers general manager Dan Morgan officially signed him to a one-day contract. Asher carefully wrote his name before receiving a basket of gifts.Soon after, he met head coach Dave Canales and waited eagerly for Bryce Young. When Young walked into the hallway, Asher immediately hugged him. Without saying much, the six-year-old got the moment he had dreamed about for months.
Learning football with Panthers
Asher spent the day following Young through team meetings and the quarterbacks’ room. He learned hand signals, watched coaches draw up plays and even suggested ideas of his own. Quarterback Kenny Pickett jokingly named one of the plays ‘Diesel right, 2-jet, Asher’ after the youngster helped design it. The players also shot basketballs together before heading into the locker room.Asher’s father Evan Harvey, says watching his son enjoy those moments meant everything after years of uncertainty. “When we first found out, one of the things that I asked was, is he going to be able to play sports?” Evan recalls.“But to see him from birth to growing and going through surgeries and to get to this point in life where, yeah, he’s amazing at all things, it’s been incredible to see him kind of come into his own,” he adds.In the locker room, Asher received his helmet and gloves, met players across the team, collected signatures and confidently told cornerback Jaycee Horn that he planned to score against him.Whenever Bryce Young and Kenny Pickett were nearby, they helped him put on his equipment and made sure he felt comfortable before taking the field.When the Panthers ran onto the field, Asher led the group through the tunnel before racing onto the field. He threw passes, played with the players, high-fived his parents and even stopped to sign autographs for fans.As the Fan Fest event neared its end, coaches prepared one final play. Asher lined up beside Bryce Young in the backfield, took the handoff and ran into the end zone for a touchdown while the crowd celebrated.Head coach Dave Canales later joked about the play. “It was an automatic touchdown,” Canales said. “They couldn’t touch him, so he walked it in there, and it was a really special moment after a really nice drive.”After scoring, linebacker Jaelan Phillips lifted Asher into the air before the youngster broke away again, sprinting across the field and celebrating in front of the crowd.
