Arianna Dougan and Vladimir Tarasenko are best friends. The now 11-year-old and the young Blues star have been in contact since 2015, when the pair walked down the blue carpet for Hockey Fights Cancer Night in October.
Vladimir Tarasenko surprises 11-year-old girl fighting cancer for her birthday
The Blues opened their locker room to surprise young fan Arianna Dougan on Monday.
You see, Arianna has had neuroblastoma — a type of cancer that effects the nerves — since she was 3. To celebrate her 11th birthday, Arianna was given a surprise trip to the Blues locker room on Monday and she was met with some pretty great gifts.
Vladimir Tarasenko got the coolest birthday gift ever for one of his biggest fans. https://t.co/Ned8sH1mnO #stlblues pic.twitter.com/1us1wcByC0
— St. Louis Blues (@StLouisBlues) February 20, 2017
Arianna did have presents of her own, as she gave Tarasenko some chocolate-covered strawberries with blue sprinkles.
The real treat began, however, as she was led into the locker room. Head coach Mike Yeo gave her a custom Blues jersey and Tarasenko announced that Arianna and a guest would be joining the team on an upcoming road trip to Arizona and Denver.
That trip was won by Tarasenko at a live auction last week, for the purposes of giving it to Arianna. She and a guest will travel on the team’s charter plane and stay in the team hotel for the four-day road trip.
Oh, and the entire locker room sang happy birthday to Arianna. You can’t ask for a better birthday than that, honestly.
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