Because of one Reddit post, the dream of an avid fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger has come true.
Katie McCaffery, whose username on Reddit is Courser, created a post on the site about her brother Todd, a former weightlifter who was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer.
Todd, now 52 years old, has autism and severe learning disabilities. When he was a young man, he fell in love with Schwarzenegger's movies and took him as an idol.
"He has all of his movies," their mother Jenny said. "He really loves to watch them over and over again."
Todd's sister created a post on Reddit's r/Bodybuilding entitled "I'm not one of you but my brother was. Can you help me?".
In her post, Katie said that instead of giving up because of his disabilities, her brother decided to become a bodybuilder, just like the Terminator star.
Despite being unable to read or write beyond the basic level, Todd got himself into such good shape and had a full-time job as groundskeeper. Unfortunately, he had to stop working when he was diagnosed with glioblastoma multiforme this spring.
Todd had been keeping his spirits up, but Katie knew he was not doing well. So she set out to make her rother happy by contacting Schwarzenegger through the Internet. She sent an email to a publicity contact for the Governor, asking for a personalized photo that she could give to Todd for Christmas.
"I want to see my brother's face light up on his last Christmas morning, and an autograph from his idol is the best thing I can think of," said Katie.
Katie's post went viral. On Twitter, the hashtag #helpTodd spread around.
Todd received more than an autograph because of this.
Schwarzenegger apparently checks out the weightlifting page on Reddit. He had sent a private message to Katie, and drew a picture of a Christmas tree with the words To Todd, much love.
"I am still in Europe so I have to say this was an inspiring thing to wake up to. I've reached out to Courser but I wanted to let all of you know that you're amazing. This is the power of [R]eddit to do great things, and I'm proud of all of you, even though you filled my inbox - because you filled my inbox," said Schwarzenegger.
Todd and Schwarzenegger got to talk via video chat on Dec. 11. The Governor said he will be sending a care package to Todd soon.
"He told him to stay strong and keep on battling," said Katie. "They gave each other a lot of thumbs-ups, it was awesome."
"He's overcome already so much in his life, we could not be prouder of him. And if this (meeting with Schwarzenegger) is going to happen to anyone, I am so happy it happened to my brother," she added.
