When Sam’s mom, Judi, heard about Brad on the news, she started following KITCHEN on Facebook. On top of a boundless love for all things food, Brad and Sam also share a similar heart story. She responded to one of Brad’s Facebook posts, telling him about her son:
You are my 8-year-old son Sam’s hero. Sam has LTGA, VSD Pulmonary Stenosis and spent 236 days in the Stollery in 2017/18 and has been waiting 2 years for a heart transplant. Like you, Sam wants to be a chef.
It was a no-brainer – Brad and Leanne invited Sam for a one-on-one cooking class at KITCHEN. When the two met, the young chef-to-be was wide-eyed and shaking with excitement. Sam was presented with his own chef’s jacket, and the fast friends cooked up a storm, serving up a delicious meal for Judi and Leanne.
When Brad was a teenager, he recalls telling his parents that he wanted to be a chef. He was told that this type of career would be very challenging for someone with his condition. It wasn’t until much later on in life that he finally went on to cook for a living and start his own business. On September 1, Brad got to tell Sam, ‘Yes, you can be a chef. You can be whatever you want to be’.
