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Stamford middle schooler reunited with stuffed animal that helped him through cancer battle

Rippowam Middle School Sixth Grader Sammy Lopez hopes to pass down this good luck charm as a family heirloom.

Greg Thompson

Oct 11, 2024, 9:15 PM

Updated 70 days ago

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Rippowam Middle School sixth grader Sammy Lopez had a surprise waiting for him when he got to school Friday morning - teachers reunited him with Biscuits, the stuffed dog he got two years ago while fighting brain cancer.
"Biscuits is the one person that basically I kept by my side. They had to put me into this big machine, I just kept Biscuits near me during while they did the needles in my arms," says Sammy.
On Monday, Sammy brought Biscuits with him to school, but afterwards, accidentally left him on the bus.
He told his teachers the next day, including his math teacher Megan McGrath, who says she "tried to make him feel at ease."
"I told him that sometimes when our little friends go missing, he might have needed to help another little boy," she says.
Teachers said Sammy seemed nervous, but he says he believed that he would find him eventually.
Teachers tracked where Sammy's bus had gone and even sent out pictures of Biscuits from school security cameras.
"We thought it was a lost cause, we weren't very confident, but (we) weren't gonna give up until we found Biscuits," McGrath admits.
It paid off Thursday afternoon, when they got a call that Biscuits had been found at Stillmeadow Elementary School.
"We started yelling when we got the alert," said McGrath. "We called and yelled for each other down the hall."
After that, they just had to wait for Sammy to get to school Friday morning, when he ran over to give Biscuits, and then the teachers, big hugs.
Sammy is now cancer free, and says he wants to make Biscuits his family heirloom, passing him down to his children and their children to help them out whenever they're going through a tough time.