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Ashleigh Ahrens displays a pair of game-worn shoes given to her by Las Vegas Aces star guard Kelsey Plum after a playoff game last month.
Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022 | 2 a.m.
Aces celebrate championship
Ashleigh Ahrens has a bucket list of things to do before she dies.
She recently knocked one of the top items off that list: meeting Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum.
The 35-year-old Ahrens, who has terminal cancer that has spread from her breasts to her brain and lungs, was photographed at an Aces playoff game with a homemade sign proclaiming, “Living W Stage 4 breast cancer! Meeting Plum #10 is on my bucket list.”
The image went viral on social media and was seen by Plum, who asked on Twitter: “Hi, can someone help me find this person???????”
The team reached out to Ahrens on Instagram to set up a meeting at a game.
Ahrens had one of the best seats in the house at Michelob Ultra Arena that day, invited to sit courtside by season ticket holder Peter Chabot, who also saw the photo online.
Plum made her way over during warmups to meet Ahrens, who said it was the thrill of a lifetime. And that was just the beginning.
Plum returned after the game — an Aces win on their way to this year’s WNBA championship — and gave Ahrens the shoes off her feet.
She autographed them and offered her new friend a gigantic hug.
“I can’t even truly express (what it means), just the fact that, of all people, she felt pulled to want to meet me,” Plum told Insider.com last month. “For her to feel in any way that I’ve impacted her in this fight and in her journey, I mean, I was teary, just at a loss for words.
“She inspired me, so I think it goes both ways.”
“You have two options” when dealing with a terminal diagnosis, Ahrens said. “You can be positive and know that everything is more meaningful. You can live life to the fullest and try to accomplish things on your bucket list, or you stay in bed and wait for the inevitable.”
“Not me,” Ahrens said of giving up after her diagnosis three years ago. “I have a whole life to live.”
There have been good days and bad days since then, she said.
The Aces winning the WNBA championship Sunday in Connecticut against the Sun ranks among the best days.
“These last six weeks of following the team have been incredible,” she said. “There have been doctor appointments, radiation, stuff showing up in scans, and those situations stress you out. But (the Aces) have been a distraction. To have them win it all was amazing.”
Ahrens, a Southern California resident and high school instructional assistant, became an Aces fan while attending UNLV. She was born in Las Vegas before moving away as a child.
Even though she lives four hours from Las Vegas, Ahrens made all but one home playoff game. She rushed back this week to attend Tuesday’s championship rally on the Strip.
“I have a cancer that’s considered incurable,” she said. “They don’t like to use the word terminal, but that’s what it is. Many women can live years with it and I have been really fortunate.”
Ahrens has plenty of things left to see and do.
She wants to visit more national parks, swim with dolphins, travel to Hawaii and get married — that is scheduled for December.
There will be more Aces games and perhaps even another championship run with Plum — one of the world’s best players — as a driving force.
Ahrens plans to be front and center cheering for her team. She said watching the Aces battle for victory over the past six weeks has given her newfound strength in her fight against cancer, and Plum says she and the Aces’ fans will be right there alongside her.
“I’m still gonna be involved in checking on her and how she’s doing and stuff like that,” Plum was quoted as saying in the Insider.com story. “And I feel like this community has really seen the story and is gonna wrap their arms around her, because that’s who this community is. Not just the Aces, but the WNBA and the fans here in Las Vegas. A lot of people were touched.”
On Twitter, many fans messaged her words of encouragement, such as Angela Winstead, who wrote: “From one breast cancer survivor to another you can beat that thing girl!Living proof it can be beat! Y’all go make this girls dreams come true.”
