Feel-Good Friday: Ford CEO Steps Up in a Big Way

Eighteen-year-old Joseph Tegerdine, of Springville, Utah loves Ford Mustangs. He loves the cars so much that his father bought him one. 

This may not seem like much of a story but the details tell the whole story. Joseph has cancer and not very much longer to live. He was working at Sodalicious and saving up for a Mustang. However, realizing the seriousness of Joesph’s diagnosis, his father stepped in and bought the car for his son.

The story went viral when Joseph’s father, Joe, posted it on X, formerly Twitter. His father didn’t want him to wait any longer so he took care of that entry on Joseph’s wish list. 

That March 2 post by Wednesday had garnered 13.7 million views, 177,000 likes and more than 3,200 comments.

For those wondering why I’d buy my 18yr old son a 330hp Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself. His comment on the way home, “ Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.” #cancersucks pic.twitter.com/SWNq6bJ4nd

— Joe Tegerdine (@JoeTegerdine) March 3, 2024

Joseph explained why he loves Mustangs so much. 

“I’ve just liked Mustangs for as long as I can remember. Six-year-old me liked it, the headlights looked cool, and I stuck with it,” he told the Detroit Free Press on Wednesday. “I used to drive this Ford Bronco. It was a big truck, basically. I’d get compliments and I’d feel so manly. We sold that and I started driving my mom’s minivan, a Honda Odyssey. I felt like my testosterone was being drained away. Not great.”

He laughed, continuing: “In a Mustang I feel like a man again. It’s the silliest thing. When you get in and start it, the car just rumbles around you. It’s not a noise, it’s a feeling. When you take corners, you can feel you’re being pushed through the corner from the back. I like the way rear-wheel drive feels. When you turn the (steering) wheel, what I feel are cleaner turns.”

More tumors have been found in Joseph’s lungs. His time on earth is growing short. 

Joseph’s cancer diagnosis began when he was a seventh grader. He complained of soreness in his knee that was keeping him up at night after football games. His mother, Kerry, is a nurse. The family was living in Melissa, Texas at the time. Joseph went in for X-rays and after an MRI, they confirmed that it was osteosarcoma, a form of cancer. Next, there was a biopsy and then chemotherapy. 

“Life is just going in a certain direction and then, it’s hard to even explain how quickly things changed for the entire family,” the father said. “I can’t remember how many weeks passed and treatments but they had to take a big portion of his right leg to remove the tumor. He had a ‘rotationplasty,’ where they cut out the bad bone and rotate your lower leg, take the tibia and fibula, and reattach to the femur. They take out the compromised bone. He has a prosthesis now.”

Joseph Tegerdine said, “In seventh grade, I was 5-6 and taller than everyone else on the football team. So they had me playing center and also running back. Then I grew 8 inches in a year, and I’m 5-11 now. One of the hallmarks of bone cancer is sudden and extreme growth.”

Joseph has undergone multiple surgeries. He was unable to continue in school since he has been in and out of the hospital the last five years so he tested out. 

“He’s really bright. When he went to take the GED, they asked him questions about drugs and whether he was recently out of juvenile prison. He was like, ‘No, I can’t go to school when I’m in the hospital.’ He wanted to go into engineering.”

When Joe’s tweet went viral, the CEO of Ford saw it and personally responded. 

Hi Joe, I’m so sorry to hear what your family is going through. Please let me know if you and your son would like to attend @FPRacingSchool to experience a @FordMustang Dark Horse on the track. DM me and we’ll make it happen.

— Jim Farley (@jimfarley98) March 3, 2024

Pretty great, right? Joseph gets to attend Ford Performance Racing School with his father. Joe reached out to Farley, who responded right away, Joe said. 

“It was really crazy. That tweet was just kind of random,” Joe Tergerdine told the Free Press. “He sent a direct message to me, saying, ‘Hey, you want me to do this?’ If it’s OK, his guys would get everything set up … at the Ford Performance Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. They’re flying us out there. It’s just really cool, and we’ll stay in Charlotte for a couple of days. There’s a big dinner before school. Then Joseph will be on the track with the (Mustang) Dark Horse.”

Ford is paying for the flight on Delta Air Lines and a stay with Marriott, he said.

Joseph is eager to learn how to make a controlled skid sideways, which he calls a “drift.” 

“I don’t know how to drift. I’ve always been too scared to go to a parking lot to figure that out, because I’d just hit a light pole or something,” he said. “I need an instructor, a trainer. Also, I get to drive one of the most powerful Ford track Mustangs there is. This is going to be sick.”