Little Luca joins Richmond Tigers for training session at Punt Rd OvalChanel Zagon,
Herald Sun
December 18, 2018 Hard work pays off and can even earn you a premiership, this young Tigers fan learnt at a Richmond Football Club training session on Monday.
Four-year-old Luca Thompson’s dream came true when he trained among some of the club’s best, including Brownlow medallist Dustin Martin, at Punt Rd Oval.
Luca was born with the rare, genetic infantile Refsum disease, which affects only four children in Australia.
Luka, a young Richmond fan and one of four children in Australia born with the rare genetic infantile Refsum disease, meets his heroes at Richmond training on Monday. Picture: Cameron Grimes
It has affected his muscle tone, which means Luca must do physiotherapy and take multiple supplements each day to aid his movement.
Mum Prue said the training opportunity aimed to teach her son persistence.
“He is finding it difficult to understand the concept that hard work and exercising pays off,” she said. “At the moment, the only way to encourage Luca to do any of these daily fundamental tasks is to talk about the ‘mighty Tigers’.
“I thought the only way to teach him was to show him that the Tigers train hard before they play.”
Ms Thompson said the training session inspired Luca to stick with his exercises.
It also encouraged him to continue working hard at Auskick.
“Today meant the world to him,” she said. “Luca lives and breathes the Tigers.”
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